Isle general sees
tactics of bin Laden
Recent attacks bear the fingerprint of the
al-Qaida leader, says Maj. Gen. Eric Olson
BAGRAM, Afghanistan >> The trail has gone cold in the hunt for suspected Sept. 11, 2001, mastermind Osama bin Laden three years after the audacious attacks, but the al-Qaida chief and his No. 2 are still orchestrating strikes like the recent suicide car bombing of a U.S. security firm in Kabul, a top American commander said yesterday.
Maj. Gen. Eric Olson told the Associated Press the military had not intercepted any radio traffic or instructions from either bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. But he said the involvement of well-trained foreign fighters in attacks near the Pakistani border convinced him that the fugitive leaders were pulling the strings.
"What we see are their techniques and their tactics here in Afghanistan, so I think it is reasonable to assume that the senior leaders are involved in directing those operations," said Olson, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 180 and Hawaii's 25th Infantry Division, in an interview.
The Aug. 26 car bomb that killed about 10 people, including three Americans, at the office of a firm providing bodyguards for President Hamid Karzai also bears the hallmarks of the militant network, Olson said.
"We've even tied it to a group that has ties to al-Qaida. It could be a splinter group of some sort," Olson told AP after a ceremony at the U.S. base at Bagram north of Kabul to mark the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"It's a new group, apparently a group that was carved from al-Qaida," he said. "They have members in Pakistan and they have been active in Afghanistan, and this recent attack is the most blatant example." He declined to elaborate.
There were reports yesterday of fresh fighting in the country, where more than 900 people -- mostly Afghan security forces and rebels -- have died in political violence this year.
In the troubled southern province of Zabul, Afghan officials said two Arabs were killed and two more captured in a firefight with U.S. and Afghan troops, and that Taliban gunmen killed two elders for supporting the government. In neighboring Kandahar, eight Taliban fighters and three Afghan soldiers were reported killed in two more incidents.
Olson, a native of New York City, addressed some of the 18,000 mainly U.S. troops he commands. About 300 soldiers had gathered in a dusty tent to hear readings from the Bible and the Quran, patriotic songs and speeches reminding them of their mission.
Some wept as they watched videos of how the hijacked jetliners felled the World Trade Center towers in New York and devastated a wing of the U.S. Department of Defense three years ago.
"We're here to prevent future ceremonies, future Sept. 11s," said Maj. Andy Preston, an infantryman from Edmond, Okla., who was working at the Pentagon when it was hit.
