Kandahar, Afghanistan — U.S. special forces and their Afghan allies confiscated thousands of weapons from a local warlord Wednesday, officials said, as troops pressed the search for Taliban and al-Qaida renegades in southern Afghanistan.
At the U.S. military base outside Kandahar, the FBI director said members of Osama bin Laden's terror network detained here have provided valuable information that has prevented new attacks against U.S. targets worldwide.
In the southern province of Helmand, anti-Taliban fighters and U.S. special forces searched house-to-house in four villages looking for al-Qaida and Taliban renegades, including the deposed Islamic militia's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, according to Afghan sources.
The search turned up no trace of Omar, who refused to turn over bin Laden for his role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.
However, special forces and their Afghan allies confiscated about 2,000 weapons ranging from small arms to heavy artillery, according to Khalid Pashtun, an aide to Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha.
Pashtun said the weapons were taken without incident Wednesday from Haji Bashar, a local warlord in Helmand province, as part of a campaign to bolster security in the region.
Helmand and other southern provinces were Taliban strongholds and among the last areas handed over by the Islamic militia after it collapsed last year following intense American airstrikes and attacks by the U.S.-backed northern alliance.
The U.S.-led coalition has been trying to get weapons out of the hands of local warlords whose support for the new interim Afghan government is in doubt. The United States has allied itself with other power brokers, including Agha, in hopes they can maintain order and work with the central government in Kabul.
Prisoners provide information
During an unannounced visit Wednesday to the Kandahar air base, FBI Director Robert Mueller said some of Taliban and al-Qaida members taken prisoner had provided valuable information that has helped authorities prevent new terrorist attacks.
"Information we have picked up since the war has prevented additional attacks around the world," Mueller said. "Interrogations from al-Qaida members detained here in Afghanistan as well as documents ... has prevented additional attacks against U.S. facilities around the world."
Mueller refused to elaborate. However, one prisoner al-Qaida training camp commander Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi spoke of plots to bomb the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain and the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials.
Al-Libi spoke of the Navy plot, said two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Authorities, however, aren't sure whether the threat was real.
The officials also confirmed that al-Libi provided information about al-Qaida plans to use a truck bomb to blow up the embassy this week. U.S. officials said it was unclear whether the plot had been verified and had no information on any arrests or discovery of bomb materials by Yemeni officials.
Last month, Singapore authorities arrested suspects they said were plotting attacks against the U.S. Embassy and other targets. The authorities said handwritten notes and a videotape found in Afghanistan helped lead them to the suspects.
The military has postponed further transfers of prisoners from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay so it can concentrate on the questioning of the 158 previous arrivals and expanding jail space, said Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert, the Marine in charge of the detention camp in Cuba.
Other developments:
China offered to provide economic assistance to rebuild Afghanistan.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived Wednesday in Pakistan for talks with Pakistani leaders on the situation in Afghanistan. Annan will go to Afghanistan on Friday.
Pakistan has tentatively agreed to allow the United States and its allies full access to the country's largest airport as a hub for Afghan operations.
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