NEW YORK, Nov 7: Pentagon’s commander for the Middle East has created a covert commando force to hunt Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and key terrorists throughout the region, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The new Special Operations Organization is designed to act with greater speed on intelligence tips about the “high-value targets” and not be contained within the borders where American conventional forces are operating in Iraq and Afghanistan, the paper quoted US military officials as saying.

Senior Bush administration officials are frustrated that Saddam is on the loose and still exerts influence on Iraq. At a minimum, officials told the New York Times, Saddam’s mere survival is inspiring attacks on American troops and Iraqi security forces. Some officials believe he is playing a role in coordinating and directing the violence by his loyalists.

Military officers told the paper that a broader mission was given to the new force, which has become one of the Pentagon’s highly-classified and closely-watched operations.

They say that focusing the intelligence and the special operations firepower within one organization, called Task Force 121, streamlines the effort to use information on these targets and mount an attack.

The decision to create the force was prompted by several factors, Pentagon and military officials said.

The creation of the task force also reflects a desire by senior administration and military officials to ensure that American commitment in Iraq does not detract them from the hunt for the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban who went underground after the war in Afghanistan.

The paper says that while it is unclear whether President Bush or the newly-formed Iraq Stabilization Group at the National Security Council were directly involved in the decision to create the new force, however the senior administration members have told it that in the coming two months, capturing or killing of Saddam would change the dynamic of the American occupation.