Mountains of Afghanistan a likely target if U.S. attacks

By Sally Buzbee

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – One obvious target: the mountains of Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden is believed to be. If the Bush administration undertakes a sustained military campaign against terrorist groups, the United States also might target suspected bin Laden operations in Sudan or Algeria.

Even Pakistan, America’s on-and-off ally, is believed to harbor bin Laden training camps along its largely uncontrolled border with Afghanistan. The United States will want to remove those, either by itself or with Pakistan’s cooperation, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity.

Beyond that, Iraq could be another target if the United States were to decide to go after not just bin Laden’s network but other nations that support terrorists, the official said.

Such a widely arrayed list of targets raises numerous problems, administration officials and foreign policy experts say. It may be difficult to hit elusive terrorists hidden in remote mountain caves, if they’re even still there. The United States also runs the risk of angering countries that it doesn’t want to anger, because their support might prove vital.

“Justice demands that those who helped or harbored the terrorists be punished,” Bush said Friday.

The justice he speaks of would be for the loss of the landmark Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center; the violation and damage of the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. armed forces; four airliners, hijacked and crashed; and thousands of American lives snuffed out in a matter of minutes.

The president is planning a sweeping campaign against terrorist groups that could last several years, a senior White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Secretary of State Colin Powell reaffirmed Friday that the United States will take aim not only at the terrorists responsible for Tuesday’s twin attacks in New York and Washington, but at the countries behind them. The idea will be to “rip that network up,” Powell said earlier. “And when we are through with that network, we will continue with a global assault against terrorism in general.”

Overall, bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire who has been linked to several terror operations against Americans, is thought to have followers or operations in 34 countries, according to a Congressional Research Service study. They include Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Libya, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Kosovo, the Philippines, even Britain, Canada and the United States.

Powell said the administration would not always use “blunt force military. … It may be that diplomatic efforts, political efforts, legal, financial, other efforts may be just as effective against that kind of an enemy.”

Camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Algeria are the most likely military targets because they are considered the most active in bin Laden’s loose network, the U.S. official said.

The United States has the military might to level Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, which is controlled by the rigidly Islamic Taliban militia. Camps run by terrorists, however, are much harder to find and destroy than a conventional enemy like a nation and its army, Powell admitted.

“The enemy is in many places. The enemy is not looking to be found. The enemy is hidden,” Powell said.

Pakistan is both the touchiest – and perhaps most important – country for the United States in its confrontation with terror.

The Bush administration has asked Pakistan for permission to let U.S. military aircraft fly through its territory if airstrikes are ordered against sites in Afghanistan.

But the administration also is considering options that include the use of air, sea and land forces over a lengthy period.

It would be difficult for Pakistan openly to allow U.S. ground troops on its soil or U.S. raids on bin Laden camps along its border with Afghanistan, according to another official familiar with the diplomatic situation. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf could face widespread dissent from Islamic groups inside his country if he were to agree to that.

The United States already accuses Sudan of sponsoring terrorists and has few diplomatic relations with that country. But Washington does have relations with Algeria and sometimes seeks its cooperation on Middle East peace issues.

And what if a country close to the United States, such as Egypt, were found to have harbored bin Laden associates? asked Phil Coyle, a former top Pentagon planner. That could cause “a real dilemma,” he said.