WASHINGTON, Jan 2: The United States will ask for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to be handed over if he surrenders to anti-Taliban forces, a Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
“We expect to have control over him,” Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporteers during a briefing. “The anti-Taliban forces ... understand he would be turned over to the US.”
Haji Gulalai, chief of intelligence in Kandahar province, said a raid against Omar’s suspected base was planned, and would take place unless negotiations to avert bloodshed succeeded.
AIRBORNE TROOPS: The first of more than 1,000 troops from the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division have arrived in Kandahar to take over duties performed by US Marines, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The rotation comes amid reports that marines were engaged in an operation aimed at capturing Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke would not say whether Marines were on a mission to seize Omar or on a foray to gather intelligence, but said it would not be surprising if they were.
“The US forces in Afghanistan continue to be focused on what we’ve said are our primary objectives, and that is to pursue and get the Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership,” she said.
“We’ll use whatever resources and whatever people it takes to achieve those objectives,” she said.
Afghan officials said negotiations over Omar’s fate were underway with commanders in southern Helmand province but 4,000 to 5,000 Afghan troops backed by US Marines were prepared to launch a “clean up” operation if they failed.
Clarke said US forces were in close consultation with the Afghan interim government.
“We have given a very clear sense of how committed we are to getting the al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership and what we expect the disposition of them to be,” she said.
Meanwhile, about 200 troops from the crack 101st Airborne Division have landed in Kandahar over the past couple of days to begin taking over the marines’ duties at an airport and detention center and to maintain a presence in the region, Clarke said.
She said more than 1,000 troops from the division will move into the base over the next few days.
She would not say what the marines would be doing, but Pentagon officials indicated that they would be rotating out of the region with the USS Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship that carries a 2,000-member US Marine expeditionary unit.
Eight prisoners that were aboard the Peleliu have been moved to another amphibious assault ship, the USS Bataan, in anticipation of the rotation, Clarke said.
US forces are holding 221 prisoners in all — 200 of them at a detention center in Kandahar, 12 at Baghram and one at Mazar-i-Sharif, she said.
TURKEY’S ROLE: No official decision has been taken for Turkey to head the multinational security force in Afghanistan after Britain completes a three-month term, an aide to Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said on Wednesday.
“Nobody has so far told us that we will be leading the force after Britain,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Such a decision can be deemed final only when the UN Security Council passes a resolution,” he added.
The official, stressed that Turkey, the sole mainly Muslim member of NATO, was the only country so far to volunteer to take over the command of the mission, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
French Defense Minister Alain Richard said earlier in Islamabad that Turkey would assume ISAF’s command when Britain’s three-month leadership term expired.—AFP