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Zaeef Questioned As U.S. Raids Continue
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| Zaeef in
U.S. custody
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KABUL, Jan. 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - United States aircraft are reported to have carried out fresh raids in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, as the questioning of the former Taleban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, convened after he was refused asylum by Pakistan.
According to the BBC’s online news service, the U.S. planes bombed suspected Al-Qaeda positions in the mountainous region of Spin Ghar, south of Jalalabad.
This came as U.S. President, George W. Bush, issued a warning to followers and allies of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda group saying they should not underestimate America's resolve.
"They think they can run, they think they can hide, because they think this country's soft and impatient," he said. "But they're going to continue to learn the terrible lesson that says don't mess with America."
America's new envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said the bombing would continue as long as the U.S. felt threatened.
Meanwhile, the Americans are questioning Zaeef, who was taken into U.S. custody Saturday.
The U.S. has also announced that it has taken into custody one of the highest-ranking members of Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi, who reportedly ran training camps for the group which is accused of carrying out the September 11 attacks on the U.S.
Al-Libi was one of 12 Al-Qaeda members on the list of individuals and organizations whose assets were frozen by Bush on September 26, 2001.
U.S. military sources believe the capture of Al-Libi deprives Al-Qaeda of one of its most important figures and represents a potential boon of intelligence as the Pentagon seeks additional data on the possible location of other top Al-Qaeda activists, including Osama bin Laden himself.
U.S. military officials indicated that Zaeef had been taken on board the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea. More than 300 prisoners are currently being held by the American military on the Bataan and in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
The former ambassador, who was the Taleban's principal voice to the outside world at the start of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, is possibly the most senior Taleban official in U.S. custody.
Zaeef, a 34-year-old ethnic Pashtun who had sought political asylum in Pakistan after it cut diplomatic relations with the Taleban movement, was deported back to his home country and instantly detained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
It is not clear whether the Pakistan authorities delivered him directly into the hands of U.S. forces.
The main American targets for arrest, Osama bin Laden and his main ally, Taleban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, have so far eluded capture
U.S. forces and their local allies are still looking for Omar. The search is concentrated in the area around Baghran, north of Kandahar.
CNN reported that Omar had apparently escaped an attempt to locate and capture him Friday. According to another report from Kandahar, Omar escaped on motorcycle as anti-Taleban forces closed in on a mountainous region in southern Afghanistan where he was believed hiding.
Omar is wanted by the United States for harboring Bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Washington has placed a ten million dollar-bounty on Omar's head and offered 25 million dollars for Bin Laden.
The United States is hoping Zaeef will provide valuable clues to Bin Laden's whereabouts.
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