WASHINGTON/KABUL, 14 January — Deteriorating weather conditions — including some of the heaviest rain seen in Kabul in years — yesterday slowed the deployment of international security troops by effectively closing the two airports servicing the Afghan capital. Three military aircraft ferrying troops to Afghanistan were forced to turn back by heavy rain and snowfalls, while three United Nations flights were also unable to land.
US warplanes pounded suspected Al-Qaeda and Taleban hide-outs in eastern Afghanistan yesterday even as the United States looked farther afield in its war on terrorism. Also yesterday, 30 more Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters were flown to Cuba under heavy US military security. The "unlawful combatants" captured by the US-led coalition were aboard a US military C-17 cargo plane that departed for Cuba at 1730 GMT yesterday, said a spokesman for the US Central Command, which coordinates the US campaign in central Asia.
"The preparations were exactly the same as for the first flight," which is expected to land 27 hours after it departed, said Air Force Lt. Col. Martin Compton in a telephone interview, with the prisoners shackled, hooded and each escorted by two members of the US military.
With the government in Kabul pleading for $45 billion to resurrect its devastated land, a senior Defense Ministry official said the government would keep about 1,500 troops in the capital Kabul after it had cleared the city of thousands of armed men in agreement with international peacekeepers.
As the US military hunted Bin Laden and ousted Taleban leader Mulla Omar, a top US diplomat said the world’s superpower was maintaining the option of opening a new front — against long-standing enemy Iraq. After a night of raids, US warplanes yesterday bombed cave complexes in the Zhawar area, 30 km southwest of Khost, the private Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said. The bombers have hit the area hard for several days but yesterday was the first time they had flown by day, AIP said.
The US aircraft appeared to be dropping very large bombs. Residents of the Pakistani town of Bannu, 80 km away from Zhawar, said they could hear the rumble of distant explosions and feel the ground shake. The bombers were preparing the way for US ground patrols to search the caves and tunnels for fugitives, the Pakistan-based AIP said.
Kabul’s primary air link with the outside world is the former Soviet air base at Bagram, 50 kilometers north of the city. British military personnel and Afghan staff are also clearing mines and other unexploded ammunition from Kabul airport prior to its reopening to civilian flights.
The airstrip at Bagram was virtually awash yesterday, which prevented UN pilots from landing two 50-seater jets and one small propeller-driven aircraft. Afghanistan has suffered a severe drought over the past three years, which has reduced much of the country to a dust bowl.
Kabul International Airport was originally slated to reopen to civilian air traffic today. But British military spokesman Maj. Guy Richardson told journalists the efforts of about 100 British Army engineers and Royal Air Force personnel were being hampered by the weather. "Like all airports around the world, Bagram suffers from inclement weather," Richardson said.
Afghanistan’s interim government, grappling to pacify a country awash with guns, bandits and feuding tribal chiefs, continued its push to disarm various factions and declare Kabul weapons-free. But a senior defense official, Saleh Muhammad Regestani, said it would keep 1,500 troops in the city, despite a recent order for all armed men to get out. "The 1,500 soldiers will remain until police take full control," Regestani told Reuters Television.
