December 19, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 24, 1424

BAGRAM, Dec 18: America’s top general said on Thursday Osama bin Laden would definitely be captured one day, just like Saddam Hussein.

General Richard Myers, on a one-day Christmas visit to US troops in Afghanistan, accompanied by comedian Robin Williams and other US entertainers, said Osama was probably alive and hiding in the rugged tribal lands of the Pakistan-Afghan border.

“It’s very difficult to find individuals,” Gen Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Bagram airbase.

“But what will happen is, with absolute certainty, if (Osama) bin Laden is still alive, and I think most suspect he is, that he will be captured some day, just like we captured Saddam Hussein. Some day he will be brought to justice, just like Saddam.”

Richard Myers said common wisdom had it Osama was somewhere in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, “where he has some support, where he can buy support, and probably very difficult terrain”.

Gen Myers earlier arrived in Afghanistan after visiting Iraq.

In Afghanistan, he said he was pleased a key national assembly meeting, or Loya Jirga, to approve a new constitution had passed off so far without incident, despite threats by the Taliban to disrupt it.

“We have basically a pretty stable country and the incidents we have are actually isolated terrorist incidents,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean tomorrow that we aren’t going to have a car bomb attack, I am not saying that, but the security situation has dramatically improved.”

NO TROOP INCREASE: Gen Myers said NATO’s plans to expand its peacekeeping operation into Afghanistan’s provinces were still under discussion, but he did not anticipate any large increase in US troops as part of that.

“I think we would leave that to other NATO countries,” he said.

With NATO members reluctant to commit more troops, the exact scope of the expansion in Afghanistan remains unclear, despite repeated pleas by the United Nations and aid agencies struggling to maintain programmes in areas troubled by guerillas.—Reuters