U.S. Troops Snare Osama Money Man

U.S. forces have captured a man who is believed to be a top financier for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network or the Taliban during an operation in southeastern Afghanistan, the military said.

Troops also detained at least eight other people and seized more than 150 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 200 explosive booby traps, a mortar, several cases of hand grenades, rocket launchers, rockets, heavy machine guns and military communications equipment, Lt. Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne's 3rd Battalion, said Wednesday.

Four rockets were launched early Thursday near U.S. special operations forces outside Gardez in the southeastern Paktia province, said Col. Roger King at Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan.

One of the rockets landed about 440 yards north of the U.S. position. The other three landed in a nearby village, but there were no reported casualties, King said.

Meanwhile, one year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Wednesday says the war on international terrorism is going well, but has not been won.

Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, who leads the U.S. military in Afghanistan, told Reuters in an interview that the main problems appeared to be in the east of the country and areas of the south.

"We are winning the war on terrorism," he said at the Bagram air base just north of Kabul.

"It is not won, but we are winning it. Many of the leadership of al Qaeda have been captured and killed, many rank and file members have been captured and killed," he added.

The arrests and weapons seizures took place during Operation Champion Strike, which began Saturday and ended Tuesday. The operation, involving about 1,000 troops mostly from the 82nd Airborne Division, was centered in the Bermel Valley, about 150 miles south of the capital Kabul.

The valley is in Paktika province on the border with Pakistan.

The operation began shortly before 8 a.m. Saturday with a raid on the Bermel Bazaar, about six miles from the Pakistani border. Between 200 and 300 soldiers surrounded the market and started searching.

By late afternoon, soldiers had gone through the 200 buildings in the bazaar, arresting 14 people — including the suspected financier. Eight of them were brought to the U.S. military based in Kandahar and other six were released.

"He is a significant target," Schweitzer said of the financier, who was not identified. "It's great to get the bad guys."

Schweitzer said the man was caught by surprise by U.S. soldiers and just before his capture was heard saying in an intercepted radio transmission: "I'm surrounded by Americans and I can't get out."

A large amount of weapons were found in the bazaar, along with passports, al Qaeda and Taliban documents and mobile or satellite phones.

The area south of Kabul near the border with Pakistan is one of the most active fronts in the U.S.-led war against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

On Monday, while searching another village, four men fired on Afghan forces as American soldiers prepared to deploy. One of the men involved in the firefight was detained by U.S. troops and sent to Kandahar. It was not immediately clear what happened to the other three men.

At one house in the village, soldiers found Kalashnikov magazines and grenade canisters during an initial search.

But, upon closer inspection, a newly mud-plastered wall was discovered to be false. Soldiers dug through to find 17 rockets, hand grenades and anti-tank mine and a variety of documents, including a postcard with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's name written on it, rosters of names and Qurans.

U.S. soldiers suspect that many of their targets have succeeded in escaping into the hills and mountains, blending into the local population and crossing the border into Pakistan.

Many people in the conservative regions near the Pakistan frontier are opposed to the presence of U.S. forces and view U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai and his government based in Kabul with deep suspicion.

"Some elements don't care to see a democracy in Afghanistan," McNeill said.

Despite its numerical and technological supremacy, the U.S. military has failed to catch the greatest prize of all — Saudi-born dissident and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is accused of planning the Sept. 11 attacks.

McNeill played down the significance of not knowing the fate of the world's most wanted man.

"Our operations are not focused on any personality, but we are focused on the enemy," he said.