Washington — As the hunt for suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar continued Tuesday, American defense officials confirmed that U.S. Marines were helping with "information gathering" at a former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.
The Marines have been "actively doing a search ... in the Helmand province west of Kandahar," while special forces have been working with anti-Taliban soldiers in the region, said Army Col. Rick Thomas at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. The southern city of Kandahar was a Taliban stronghold until it fell in early December.
Thomas said the Marines "are not going after Omar," but he declined to offer details of the special operations forces' activities. The Marines are searching one of 14 identified sites that Taliban and al-Qaida forces have used, Thomas said.
American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh, meanwhile, was one of eight detainees transferred from the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship Peleliu to the Bataan, another assault ship in the Arabian Sea. Officials declined to say why Walker and the others were moved.
Thomas also said the number of Taliban and al-Qaida detainees held by U.S. forces has risen to 210, with 189 in Kandahar .
Elsewhere, Afghanistan's interim government pressed forward. Interim President Hamid Karzai continued the steady stream of meetings that has been his daily life since he started the job 10 days ago. He met in Kabul, the capital, with the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, as well as Afghan tribal elders from several provinces.
Karzai will make his first official trips outside the country in the next few weeks. He will visit the United States, India and Japan, which will serve as host to a meeting of countries expected to contribute funds toward the rebuilding of Afghanistan, according to a report on Radio Afghanistan in Kabul.
Other ministries were busy. As dusk fell, Rural Affairs Minister Abdul Malek was working to draw up a budget for his agency, which is short on staff, supplies, chairs and everything else it takes to run a government department.
Aid agencies kicked off an $8 million immunization program to inoculate about 9 million Afghan children against measles. The disease, which has been virtually eradicated in developed countries, kills about 35,000 Afghan children each year, according to the U.N. Children's Fund and the World Health Organization. The two agencies are spearheading the vaccination program.
Afghans seemed eager to have their children immunized, and throughout the day there was a steady stream of mothers and fathers bringing their children to the modest hospital here for shots. It was the first experience with an inoculation for many of the children.
Another major humanitarian effort was under way at the government's main orphanage in Kabul. A private Italian television station, owned by Mediaset, in concert with the Italian Red Cross delivered a truckload of blankets, clothes and shoes for the nearly 1,000 children at the orphanage and at a separate institution for girls. Subsequent deliveries will include food, toys, books and supplies for school, said Alfredo Macchi, a correspondent for the station.
The donations came after Macchi broadcast a news program on the orphanage several weeks ago and received an enormous response from Italians who wanted to help the impoverished children. The channel raised more than $500,000 and coordinated with the Red Cross to get the supplies and ensure they arrived. The first delivery came Tuesday.
Last month, the orphanage received nearly 45 tons of food including rice, beans and macaroni as a result of the joint effort of the New York Fire Department and an international aid agency.
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