ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: The United States will seek to extradite Osama bin Laden and any other senior Al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said Thursday.
Kenton Keith said terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and members of his network were still on the run, but if caught the United States would press for their extradition.
“Obviously there are some people that we would very much like to have and we will be working with whichever force has them in custody to see if that can be arranged,” he told reporters.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington earlier that several hundred Al-Qaeda fighters had been detained by Afghan militia and across the border by Pakistan forces.
“We as a coalition are interested in a certain number of Taliban leaders and obviously all Al-Qaeda members,” Keith said.
“There will be a process by which individuals will be examined as a matter of coalition and Pakistani government cooperation. Then what happens to them will be sorted out on a case by case basis.”
However Keith emphasised that even with the Taliban defeated and a new interim government preparing to take power on Saturday, the coalition’s war against terrorism was far from complete — bin Laden, wanted for the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, remained at large.
Keith said US special forces and anti-Taliban militia were still searching the labyrinth of caves and tunnels in the mountains of the Tora Bora region along Afghanistan’s western border with Pakistan.
“The process of looking through those caves is not finished. The process of rounding up everybody who is on the run is not finished.
“It’s quite possible he’s holed up in one of those caves and it’s quite possible he is not able to move from one of those caves,” he said.
However he conceded that the coalition “just simply doesn’t know where he is.”
“The hunt will go on whether it takes a day, a week, a year or however long it takes. It will continue until he is brought to justice.”AFP
PAKISTAN’S ROLE PRAISED: Keith said the arrest of Al-Qaeda members in Pakistan had proved that Islamabad was sincere in the US-led war against terrorism, Our Staff Reporter adds.
Commenting on Tuesday’s incident in Kurrum Agency in which seven members of Pakistan’s law-enforcement agencies and seven Al-Qaeda fighters were killed, he said the incident was a proof that Pakistan had acted with great enthusiasm.
“Pakistan has moved impressive military assets in the area and handling the situation very well,” Keith said.
Keith quoted US Secretary of State Collin Powel’s remarks that they could not have asked for more cooperation from Pakistan than what they were already getting in the war against terrorism.
On a question whether the interrogation of Al-Qaeda members was being jointly done by the US and Pakistani authorities, he said they had been closely cooperating with each other but declined to give details.