The US military machine was flexing its muscles Monday as it prepared to strike back at the terrorists who ravaged the country two weeks ago, while American officials scoffed at Taliban claims that the prime suspect in the case had vanished.
Top officials in Washington vowed to provide crucial proof that Afghanistan-based extremist Osama bin Laden masterminded the blitz on New York and Washington, and warned that the war against terror would be long, grueling and often invisible.
As Washington showed its stern resolve Sunday to seek out and destroy the attackers who left nearly 7,000 people dead or missing, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban showed no signs of buckling to pressure to hand over bin Laden.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted the loss of a US spy drone over the country, but said there was no evidence it had been shot down, as the Taliban claim.
A team of US defense officials meanwhile arrived in the Pakistani capital Islamabad to gauge how far Pakistan will go in assisting expected military action in neighboring Afghanistan.
The arrival of the high-level Pentagon team was confirmed by a US embassy spokesman, but he refused to divulge details of the visit, who they would meet or how long they intended to stay.
"It is a consultation visit," he said.
Meanwhile a powerful US armada was maneuvering into place around Afghanistan, just as London's defense ministry denied reports that British commandos were already in Afghanistan and had been involved in a minor clash with Taliban soldiers.
US President George W. Bush -- who Sunday ended America's official mourning period with a ceremony raising the US flag from half-mast -- was back in the White House after spending the weekend at Camp David drawing up plans for his offensive against bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network.
Meanwhile, US and world markets were preparing to weather a different kind of assault brought on by the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon that claimed up to 6,827 lives.
Wall Street was to open Monday to uncertainty after suffering its worst week of trading since the Great Depression, casting gloom over worldwide stocks. The New York stock market lost 1.4 trillion dollars in five days last week.
A British economic research unit predicted that the terrorist blitz would result in a fall of 2.2 percent in gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide next year.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told CNN on Sunday that there was "very little hope" of finding more survivors in the compacted rubble of the World Trade Center, "but they're waiting two weeks or a little more than that to make certain."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell meanwhile told ABC television that Washington would soon present proof to the world that bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were behind the September 11 outrages.
"I think his guilt is going to be very obvious to the world," Powell said.
US forces around Afghanistan have built up to a point where strikes against the Central Asian country were likely to occur within weeks, if not days.
Two US navy battle groups, each led by an aircraft carrier, were in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and more than 100 extra warplanes have been deployed to the area.
Two more aircraft carriers were en route for the region: the USS Kitty Hawk which left Japan on Friday and the USS Theodore Roosevelt which left Norfolk, Virginia, bound for the eastern Mediterranean and "points east".
Long-range B-52 and B-1 bombers have also been deployed along with A-10 Warthog ground-support attack jets, and US army special forces -- elite units that have seen action in Panama, Somalia and the Gulf -- received orders last week to deploy to an unspecified location.
US officials also have called up more than 10,000 military reservists for "homeland defense" duties and to support deployed forces.
The London Times newspaper said Monday, quoting defense ministry sources, that the first movement of British troops to a base in central Asia, probably Uzbekistan, was due some time this week. It said about 100 British commandos would be attached to the US campaign.
It also said that a British aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, could be mobilized.
Despite the massive show of force, though, the Taliban, who have defiantly refused to hand over bin Laden, appeared to score the first points against the allied forces.
They said Sunday they had shot down an unmanned spy plane and Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency later said the Taliban claimed to have shot down a second drone.
US officials admitted the loss of one of the drone aircraft, but did not confirm it was the result of ground fire. They refused to confirm or deny the loss of the second plane.
A Taliban spokesman said Sunday the militia had no idea where bin Laden was, and some foreign media have speculated that he has already slipped out of Afghanistan.
"Osama bin Laden is missing. We are searching for him," Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen said, according to the Afghan Islamic Press.
"We are still making efforts to locate him," he said adding that once bin Laden is found, he would be urged -- but not ordered -- to leave the country.
But US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice immediately shot back on CNN: "We don't simply believe it."
Intense fighting raged in northern Afghanistan as opposition forces under warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam claimed he had cut off a Taliban supply route leading to the town of Mazar-i-Sharif near the Uzbek and Tajik borders.
Dostam said that his men had killed at least 60 Taliban fighters and secured a key highway. A Taliban official confirmed the opposition had advanced but said the fighting was ongoing.
Opposition forces have pledged to work with the United States in the event of an attack.
On the diplomatic front, US officials said Russia had given the go-ahead for US forces to operate out of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
Despite tensions in the region, Gulf monarchies indicated they support the hunt for those behind the attacks on US cities.
Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council expressed their "total support and cooperation for international efforts to find the authors of the terrorist acts and bring them to justice," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying Monday.
South Korea said it would offer non-combat troops to any US-led terrorism offensive, while Malaysia denied harboring terrorists after reportedly being named on a US list of nine countries told to hand over suspects -- WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
