KABUL, 27 February 2004 — Osama Bin Laden will probably be captured or killed one day, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday, but he added he had no idea when.
Rumsfeld was addressing a news briefing with Afghan President Hamid Karzai amid stepped up US and Pakistani operations against the Al-Qaeda network and the Taleban.
His visit to Afghanistan, winding up a week-long tour of Iraq and Central Asia, came just hours after five Afghan aid workers were killed in an ambush northeast of Kabul, the worst such attack since US-led forces overthrew the Taleban late in 2001.
Asked if US and allied forces were getting closer to capturing Bin Laden, Rumsfeld said: “Close doesn’t count. The world will be a better place when he is captured or killed. That is the goal of a great many nations... I suspect that we’ll find that it is accomplished at some point in the future and I wouldn’t have any idea when.”
Rumsfeld praised recent efforts by Pakistan’s army to hunt militants along the country’s border with Afghanistan.
“I think the efforts that are being made in Pakistan... to track down terrorists are encouraging and constructive and in a number of instances they have been successful.”
Security was heavy for Rumsfeld’s visit.
When his C-130 aircraft flew into Kandahar and Kabul it made a steep “tactical” descent to avoid any possible threat from shoulder-fired missiles. As he stepped off the aircraft, a heavily armed Apache helicopter gunship circled overhead and military vehicles blocked off roads.
