A second batch of captured Afghan fighters was en route to Cuba on Monday as US military forces kept up their pressure on oustanding Taliban and al-Qaeda militants with bombers pounding a former base.
The 30 detainees left Afghanistan in a C-17 US military cargo plane at 12:30 pm (1730 GMT Sunday) bound for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a spokesman for the US Central Command told reporters.
It was expected, if it followed the flight pattern taken three days earlier by the first plane, to land 27 hours later, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Martin Compton said from Central Command headquarters in Florida.
He said the prisoners, who follow 20 already in Cuba, were shackled, hooded and each escorted by two members of the US military.
Meanwhile, US military forces kept up their pressure on the remnants of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group with bombers pounding a former base Sunday amid a continuing round-up of suspected terrorists.
The United States has so far failed in a key objective of capturing September 11 terror suspect bin Laden and his protectors from the ousted Taliban regime.
But the US and its Afghan allies are continuing to round up bin Laden's followers and to strike at remnants of the militant organisation while the new Afghan interim government and the international community begin rebuilding the shattered nation after two decades of war.
US planes launched fresh air raids on a suspected al-Qaeda base in eastern Afghanistan's Khost region overnight, the Afghan Islamic Press reported Sunday.
The bombing of Zhawar base was "heavy and intense," it said, quoting residents in the Pakistani border town of Miran Shah.
The region has been the target of almost daily air strikes since January 3, when US forces began massive aerial bombardments after finding signs al-Qaeda fighters were returning to their former training bases there.
Terrorist suspects are continuing to be rounded up with close to 400 being detained at a provisional detention centre at Kandahar airport.
Thirty new suspects arrived Friday night bringing the total to 391, US Marine spokesman Major Chris Hughes said from the airport.
Security was tight at the Kandahar detention centre because the detainees were considered dangerous.
The deployment of troops to make up an international security force was slowed by deteriorating weather conditions -- including some of the heaviest rain seen in Kabul in years -- which effectively closed the two airports servicing the Afghan capital Sunday.
Three military aircraft ferrying troops to Afghanistan were forced to turn back by heavy rain and snow falls, while three United Nations flights were also unable to land.
The UN-mandated security force is already more than 1,000 strong and is expected to swell to 5,000 members from 18 countries by the middle of next month.
Efforts to apprehend and question senior Taliban cadres have been frustrated in recent weeks with the release of top officials by provincial authorities in the southern province of Kandahar, the former base of the Islamic militia's leadership.
On Saturday the interim government added its voice to American criticism of the release of eight Taliban officials, including the regime's former justice minister Nooruddin Turabi.
After the officials turned themselves in, Kandahar authorities allowed them to leave without seeking permission from the central government, interior minister Yunus Qanooni told AFP.
As part of an attempt to replace Afghanistan's rival militias with a unified national army, the interim administration has decided to recruit more than 6,000 soldiers, Afghan television announced.
The decision was finalised at a meeting Saturday between interim leader Hamid Karzai and Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the report said.
Each of the country's 31 provinces would be expected to send 200 volunteers aged between 20 and 25.
The massive task of rebuilding Afghanistan is coming into focus ahead of a meeting of donor countries in Japan on January 21 and 22.
At least 15 billion dollars will be needed to rebuild war-torn Afghanistan in the first 10 years, say officials finalising a deal ahead of the donors meeting.
Officials from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations Development Programme are putting the finishing touches to a so-called preliminary needs assessment plan for Afghanistan's rehabilitation.
But ADB director general for South Asia Yoshihiro Iwasaki said costs under the preliminary plan excluded humanitarian assistance.
However, Haji Abdul Salam, head of the planning ministry's social services department, put the bill at almost 45 billion dollars over 10 years.
"Almost 50 percent of the whole budget will be spent on the social services sector as it includes the repatriation of refugees, settlement, education, rebuilding of cities and provinces, and so on," he said.
"If the reconstruction of Afghanistan does not take place, Afghanistan will reverse back to the civil war and will turn back to be the nest for terrorists and terrorism," Abdul Salam said.
(China Daily January 14, 2002)
