US warplanes renewed strikes against suspected terrorist hide-outs in eastern Afghanistan, but leading US Senators said that the belief was increasing that Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had fled across the border into Pakistan. The Pakistan-based ‘Afghan Islamic Press Agency’ reported on Monday that local residents said that four helicopters carrying US troops had landed overnight in Khost and Zawar in eastern Afghanistan for clean-up operations close to Pakistani border.
Heavy overnight bombing was also reported around Khost, headquarters of a former minister in the ousted Taliban regime Jalaluddin Haqqani, one of the former ruling militia's officials most wanted by the United States.
Khost was used as a training base by Al Qaida and was targeted by US cruise missiles following the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998. A number of Al Qaida fighters are believed to have slipped into the area after fleeing Tora Bora, the mountain cave complex seized by US-backed anti-Taliban forces last month. But two members of the US Senate intelligence committee said yesterday that us officials are beginning to believe that bin Laden has fled Afghanistan, possibly for Pakistan.
Sen John Edwards, traveling with other senators in the region, said this that Uzbekistan's military intelligence service thinks bin Laden has slipped into Pakistan.
“I fully expect the Pakistanis will do everything they can to help US locate bin Laden,” Edwards said.
Intelligence committee chairman Sen Bob Graham said bin Laden and other top officials have probably escaped Afghanistan, but no one is certain. Bureau Report