Kabul, Afghanistan — Afghan officials said negotiations neared a breakthrough Thursday on final terms of surrender for deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and 1,500 of his fighters.
U.S. officials were adamant that no deal had been offered to the second- most-wanted man after Osama bin Laden.
The governor of the southern city of Kandahar, Gul Agha, said Omar, accompanied by about 1,500 Taliban fighters, has been talking with a grand council of tribal leaders. U.S. officials have expressed doubts that Omar planned to give himself up.
If Omar doesn't agree to be arrested, the Baghran region in the mountains north of Kandahar, where he is believed to be hiding, faces possible bombing by U.S.-led warplanes, said Afghan and Pakistani military officials.
Afghan intelligence official Nusrat Ullah said negotiators were working out the final surrender terms for the fighters. "We have received positive response from those tribal chieftains who are sheltering Omar and his associates in Baghran," he told The Associated Press by satellite telephone. "A breakthrough in this regard is expected soon."
Asked about the talks over Omar, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington that the United States would not approve of any negotiations "which would result in freeing of people who ought not to be freed," including those involved in terrorism or harboring terrorists.
"I know that the interim government is right on the same sheet of music with us, with respect to this. They want the Taliban caught," Rumsfeld said.
In the eastern city of Jalalabad on Thursday, more than 800 fighters belonging to Nangarhar province's ruling council began hunting al-Qaida members, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.
The hunt started in the Chaparhar area, between Jalalabad and Tora Bora, the last stand of al-Qaida fighters in eastern Afghanistan. The agency's report said al-Qaida members may be hiding there.
U.S. Marines operating out of a base in Kandahar's airport also have been searching Taliban and al-Qaida facilities in the south. During a 29-hour mission that began Monday, Marines found documents, guns and other items that could be useful, U.S. defense officials said Wednesday.
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