Pentagon Says War "Not Over", U.S. Forces Helped Northern Alliance
WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (IslamOnline and News Agencies) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday the war on terrorism was "far from over" despite Northern Alliance advances against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The "effort against terrorism and terrorists is far from over," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon press conference, where he was speaking as the U.S.-backed alliance consolidated control of vast swaths of Afghanistan after routing the Taliban from the capital, Kabul.
A small number of U.S. soldiers are in the Afghan capital Kabul, Rumsfeld went on to announce, adding that they are too small to monitor all of the activities in the capital - referring to recent reports of looting and theft in the wake of the takeover.
At the briefing, Rumsfeld confirmed that American special forces teams on the ground in the north had helped the opposition Northern Alliance occupy wide swaths of territory and the that teams were also operating in the south, where the Taliban are believed to still be operating.
The U.S. defense secretary said the U.S.-led coalition was focused on destroying the al-Qaeda network run by Osama bin Laden, Washington's top suspect in the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Bin Laden has been given safe haven by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, which took flight from the capital Kabul in the face of Northern Alliance forces.
"If they [the Taliban] reorganize in the south, we're going to go get them," Rumsfeld said.
He also went on to say that firing on Taliban forces fighting on as they retreated from towns across Afghanistan was "legitimate".
"They have been offered an opportunity to surrender," Rumsfeld said.
He said that Taliban troops fleeing their former strongholds were "an attractive target and a legitimate target".
"That is an important time" in the U.S.-led campaign to root out the ruling militia "because they are not attacking but retreating," he added.
