US soldier’s killer vanishes, fate uncertain

JEREMY PAGE

KABUL, JANUARY 7: Even as US jets pounded suspected Osama bin Laden training camps in eastern Afghanistan on Monday and on the ground special forces pursued scattered fighters of the Al Qaeda, tribal elders postponed the meeting to decide the fate of the 14-year-old boy who is believed to be responsible for the first US casualty in the war after he disappeared.

Afghan tribal elders were to convene a jirga (tribal council) to discuss whether to hand the boy over to the US military, sources in the Pakistani border town of Miranshah said.

The slain US soldier was part of a 25-member fact-finding mission in eastern Paktia province to verify reports by locals that US planes had hit civilian targets in Khost’s Mata Chinah area, AIP reported last week. There was confusion over who may have killed Chapman.

A former Afghan Army general from Khost and in regular contact with the area, said four other men were suspected of involvement in the shooting. Meanwhile, British paratroopers arrived in Kabul to bolster a foreign force with a strong UN mandate to ensure security in Kabul.

US jets bombed areas around Khost where bin Laden once ran training camps and where he or his Al Qaeda fighters may have taken refuge, the private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.

US helicopters landed in the area near the Zawara training camp, delivering US ground troops for a search operation for remnants of Al Qaeda and the vanquished Taliban militia.

Through the night and into Monday morning, US planes were bombing the area, AIP said, describing the raids as intense. It gave no details of damage or casualties. At least four helicopters had landed to bring in US ground troops, AIP said, quoting unidentified sources in the area. Fighters loyal to Taliban commander and former minister for tribal affairs, Jalaluddin Haqqani, were still believed to be in Zawara, it said.

The UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan said US forces were being very careful in their raids and he had not requested a halt to the bombing that has killed numerous civilians. ‘‘They know that in some cases civilians have been hit, and I am sure they will exercise maximum care to avoid these accidents in the future,’’ he said.

Asked if he had requested an end to the US bombing, Brahimi said: ‘‘I don’t think we have spoken about that.’’ Khalilzad said on arriving in Afghanistan on Saturday the US would continue its bombing until it had eliminated Taliban and Al Qaeda.

US troops have been searching cave complexes of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network in the Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan, earlier shattered by US bombing, and also around Khost. Afghanistan’s new leader said on Sunday he was determined to arrest the reclusive cleric Mullah Omar. (Reuters)