Herald News Services
WASHINGTON — The Taliban foreign minister turned himself in to officials in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday, becoming the highest-ranking such official to do so, a U.S. defense official said.
Mullah Abdul Wakil Muttawakil was transferred to the U.S. military base at the city’s airport, where he was being held and questioned Friday night, Lt. Col. Martin Compton said.
Meanwhile, more than 50 U.S. soldiers began clearing a site in southeastern Afghanistan where a U.S. airstrike killed several suspected al-Qaida holdouts — although no evidence has suggested that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was among them, Pentagon officials said.
The U.S. troops’ mission took them to Zhawar Kili, which has been the focus of intense and repeated bombing. The most recent air attack occurred Monday, when a missile fired by an unmanned Predator drone struck a group of men traveling in a convoy within hours of several intelligence reports that al-Qaida fighters were in the convoy, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a Pentagon briefing.
Despite reports that a tall Arab — perhaps bin Laden — was among the dead, Myers said, defense strategists "simply have no idea" if he was there. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cautioned, "We haven’t ruled anything in or out."
The soldiers waited until daylight to begin their sweep for any documents, equipment or other items that might help intelligence officials, Myers said. It remained unclear how many individuals were killed and who they were, he said.
"That’s what they’re in there gathering the intelligence on," Myers said.
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