November 30, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 14, 1422

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WASHINGTON, Nov 29: The army has sent teams of soldiers to provide security around two airfields in northern Afghanistan while the number of marines on a southern base climbed to more than 1,000 by Thursday.

Meanwhile, US officials said anti-Taliban forces captured an Osama bin Laden lieutenant who is a son of Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman. The elder Abdel-Rahman is jailed in the United States for plotting to blow up New York City landmarks.

The captured Osama recruiter, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, was being held in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and his interrogators included Americans, said Cairo lawyer Montasser el-Zayat, who defends Islamic militant suspects.

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke refused to comment on captured figures, but said there have been defections among important Taliban figures, “another sign that the Taliban continues to be degraded.”

“There have been defections ... of some of the more senior people,” Clarke said on Thursday, declining to name them or say how many there were.

Highlighting the continuing danger of lawlessness and possible reprisals from the Taliban, the Pentagon has sent two units of about two dozen soldiers each to help guard US military personnel helping to repair airfields in Mazar-i-Sharif and north of Kabul in Bagram, military officials said on Wednesday.

Near the southern city of Kandahar, more marines and equipment have been ferried in to bring their strength to slightly more than 1,000, Clarke said in a Thursday briefing.

In the north, soldiers also will help protect US forces setting up field hospitals, coordinate food deliveries and advise anti-Taliban fighters, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Similar security teams probably will be sent to other areas of Afghanistan, one official said.—APP