WASHINGTON, Nov 21: US naval warships have joined in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, by stopping and searching merchant vessels leaving Pakistan to prevent their escape, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

“It’s not as if we’re stopping every ship, but if we have reason to suspect that they’re helping the senior al-Qaeda leadership, then we have put out notice that we will board those ships and inspect them,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan said of the operation, which began Tuesday.

US commandos inside Afghanistan — now numbering a few hundred — have set up roadblocks to block the movement of supplies and trap fleeing Taliban and al-Qaeda troops, while US aircraft continued to pound Kunduz and Kandahar, the last remaining strongholds of the Islamist militant groups, Lapan said.—AFP