Afghan defense minister: Usama bin Ladin, followers  may have entered Pakistan 

[FBIS Transcribed Text]     KABUL, Dec 19 (AFP) - Osama bin Laden has fled Afghanistan and is now "humiliated and scared" after abandoning his last

bastion, a senior Afghan minister said Wednesday. Mohammad Qasim Fahim, defence minister in the government that will take office Saturday, said the last of bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters had quit their positions around Tora Bora mountain in eastern Afghanistan.

The accused mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York may have fled across the mountain border into Pakistan, Fahim said.

The al-Qaeda leader and longtime "guest" of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime remains the primary target of a US-led war on terrorism that began with the air strikes on Afghanistan on October 7.

Anti-Taliban forces said Sunday they had taken over bin Laden's last Afghan stronghold in the caves around Tora Bora

Fahim said in Kabul, "All his men have been scattered. Osama bin Laden along with a small group of followers has disappeared -- presumably he might have entered Pakistan.

"Osama bin Laden has been using Afghanistan as a secure and confident stronghold. He had several training camps and strongholds in Afghanistan. But all of them have been eliminated and Osama bin Laden is now humiliated and scared.

"I do not think Osama bin Laden has the capability for now to plan or carry our any terrorist attacks because he is only thinking about his own life."

Other Afghan militia commanders also believe bin Laden and his followers have fled. A spokesman for Haji Mohammad Zaman, military commander of Nangarhar province, which includes Tora Bora, said the operation to find al-Qaeda fighters was over.

 "We are now confident that Osama bin Laden is not in Afghanistan," Zaman's spokesman was quoted as saying by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).

PSD To HTML conversion is important to webmasters because they cannot use the PSD file as it is for their web pages. if you need PSD To HTML conversion service save yourself some time, effort and money and send it in to the professionals.

"We have captured only 16 al-Qaeda fighters including some Afghans, while some others were held by other commanders," the spokesman said.

He said Afghans had turned against bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is believed to be in hiding in southern Afghanistan.

"There is no question of providing any shelter to Osama," he said. "There are no more Arabs in Tora Bora."

[Description of Source: Description of Source: Hong Kong AFP in English

-- Hong Kong service of the independent French press agency Agence

France-Presse]

Article Id: SAP20011219000060

Document Id: 0gona0c03j0xbs

Insert Date: 12/20/2001

Purge Date: 01/03/2004

Publish Date: 12/19/2001

Publish Region: Near East & South Asia

Lines: 93

Document Number: FBIS-NES-2001-1219

Document Type: Daily Report

Document Title: FBIS Transcribed Text

Document Region: Near East/South Asia, The Americas

Document Date: 19 Dec 2001

Division: South Asia, North America

Subdivision: Afghanistan, Pakistan, United States

Sourceline: SAP20011219000060 Hong Kong AFP in English 19 Dec 01

AFS Number: SAP20011219000060

Citysource: Hong Kong AFP

Language: English