Osama bin Laden has fled Afghanistan and is now "humiliated and scared" after abandoning his last bastion, a senior Afghan minister said Wednesday.
Mohammad Qasim Fahim, defence minister in the government that will take office Saturday, said the last of bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters had quit their positions around Tora Bora mountain in eastern Afghanistan.
The accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York may have fled across the mountain border into Pakistan, Fahim said.
The al-Qaeda leader and longtime "guest" of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime remains the primary target of a US-led war on terrorism that began with the air strikes on Afghanistan on October 7.
Anti-Taliban forces said Sunday they had taken over bin Laden's last Afghan stronghold in the caves around Tora Bora.
Fahim said in Kabul: "All his men have been scattered. Osama bin Laden along with a small group of followers has disappeared -- presumably he might have entered Pakistan.
"Osama bin Laden has been using Afghanistan as a secure and confident stronghold. He had several training camps and strongholds in Afghanistan. But all of them have been eliminated and Osama bin Laden is now humiliated and scared.
"I do not think Osama bin Laden has the capability for now to plan or carry our any terrorist attacks because he is only thinking about his own life."
Other Afghan militia commanders also believe bin Laden and his followers have fled.
A spokesman for Haji Mohammad Zaman, military commander of Nangarhar province, which includes Tora Bora, said the operation to find al-Qaeda fighters was over.
"We are now confident that Osama bin Laden is not in Afghanistan," Zaman's spokesman was quoted as saying by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
US bombers pounded the area for a fortnight while US and British special forces troops joined anti-Taliban militia fighters on the ground to root out Washington's prime suspect for the September 11 attacks.
"Our operation in Tora Bora is over," said Zaman's spokesman in the provincial capital Jalalabad.
"We have captured only 16 al-Qaeda fighters including some Afghans, while some others were held by other commanders," the spokesman said.
He said Afghans had turned against bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is believed to be in hiding in southern Afghanistan.
"There is no question of providing any shelter to Osama," he said. "There are no more Arabs in Tora Bora."
US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz acknowledged Tuesday that Washington did not know if bin Laden had escaped or was lying "dead in the bottom" of a cave.
"I think it's possible he could be dead in the bottom of one of them," Wolfowitz said.
"We don't know where he is now, and he could be on the run."
Riyadh Says Bin Laden's Videotape Is Genuine
The videotape released by the Pentagon showing Osama bin Laden rejoicing over the September 11 terror attacks is "genuine", Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying Wednesday.
"Some people had doubts that the videotape was fake and fabricated by the United States. This is untrue. The videotape is genuine," the prince told Al-Iqtissadiah business daily in the first official reaction to the tape from within the kingdom.
"Undoubtedly, (in) the videotape (bin Laden) does not show any sanity, or military and national leadership," he said.
The prince lashed out at the Saudi-born dissident, describing him as "insane" and saying he was accorded a status much larger than he actually deserved.
"They have given him (bin Laden) an inflated status and image ... The man has abused himself and abused others ... A man who is insane .. and who appointed himself a leader for the Afghan people," Prince Sultan said.
Bin Laden was shown last Thursday on the amateur videotape in several meetings with associates, apparently in Afghanistan, rejoicing over the scale of the carnage in the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Several Arab voices raised doubts about the authenticity of the tape, which Washington claimed was the "smoking gun" proving bin Laden was behind the attacks.
But the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, strongly denounced bin Laden and his group, describing him as a "murderous criminal."
"The tape displays the cruel and inhumane face of a murderous criminal who has no respect for the sanctity of human life or the principles of his faith," the ambassador said Saturday.
"We hope that the perpetrators of this horrific crime will soon be brought to justice and severely punished," Prince Bandar added.
Saudi Arabia withdrew the citizenship of bin Laden in 1994 when he refused orders to return to the kingdom.
Clinton Ordered Osama Bin Laden to Be Killed: Report
Former US president Bill Clinton authorized the assassination of Osama bin Laden and on three occasions ordered missile strikes against him following the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, allegedly by his followers, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Clinton is known to have issued a secret finding authorizing covert action to capture the Afghan-based Saudi extremist, but the newspaper said he expanded his orders in three additional memoranda.
Quoting former officials and sources familiar with the proceedings, the Post said Clinton in these memoranda authorized the killing instead of the capture of bin Laden, added several of his top lieutenants to the wanted list, and finally approved the shooting down of private aircraft if they were believed aboard.
Clinton operated under two constraints in his efforts to get bin Laden: only weapons aimed from a distance could be used against him, and the enemy was defined as individual terrorists, not those providing them sanctuary for their attacks against US interests.
Clinton ordered two Los Angeles-class attack submarines stationed in the nearest spot to the known whereabouts of bin Laden so they could place a Tomahawk cruise missile on any target in Afghanistan within some six hours of receiving the order, the daily said.
The Central Intelligence Agency recruited, trained, paid or equipped surrogate forces in Pakistan, Uzbekistan and among tribal militia inside Afghanistan with the purpose of capturing or killing bin Laden, it said.
The CIA's Special Activities Division made a clandestine entry into Afghanistan in 1999 to set up a desert airstrip to take bin Laden out of the country if he was captured, or to evacuate US tribal allies if they were cornered, it said.
The Clinton administration on three occasions pinpointed bin Laden and came close to ordering missile strikes against him, only to call them off amid doubts about the intelligence provided.
In one case, a person thought to be bin Laden was identified leading a well-equipped caravan in Afghanistan, but it turned out to be a wealthy sheik from the United Arab Emirates on a falconing expedition, the daily said. (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
