What's Become Of Al-Qaeda?

  • CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER'S MATE JOHNNY BIVERA/AP

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    But hints of frustration are emerging. American soldiers combed through pulverized cave complexes in eastern Afghanistan looking for dead al-Qaeda kingpins but came away empty-handed. With the number of targets dwindling, the U.S. zeroed in on a single facility last week and pounded it incessantly. U.S. warplanes dropped hundreds of bombs around the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr cave complex near the town of Khost--the same al-Qaeda camp hit by American cruise missiles in a failed 1998 attempt to take out bin Laden. But last week Air Force General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces were stunned by the size of the complex, which stretched over dozens of acres of rocky terrain. "The structure was more extensive than we had forecast it to be," Myers said.

    Local authorities in Khost said U.S. commandos slipped into town in early January and set up camp in a school building. After each bombing raid last week, the special-ops troops fanned out into the area surrounding Zhawar, collecting intelligence scraps and hunting stray al-Qaeda operatives. Backed by U.S. helicopter gunships, the commandos seized 14 al-Qaeda members, including two senior leaders. Stufflebeem said, "They were attempting to regroup." U.S. bombers may have been hoping bin Laden had taken cover at Zhawar, but locals interviewed by TIME doubted he would hide in such a ripe target. And while American commanders last month suggested he might have been killed by air strikes in Tora Bora, they made no such claims this time. "We're not chasing that shadow," Stufflebeem said.

    With the hunt for al-Qaeda's leaders in Afghanistan yielding diminishing returns, the U.S. has begun to look elsewhere. Centcom chief General Tommy Franks last week praised Pakistan's efforts to round up al-Qaeda members inside that country. With Islamabad's approval, U.S. commandos may yet enter Pakistan to assist the Pakistani military in pursuing al-Qaeda leaders on the run. Intelligence officials told TIME the U.S. is set to deploy 160 special-ops troops, many from the Army's 1st Special Forces Group, to train Philippine government soldiers battling the Islamic fundamentalist group Abu Sayyaf, a band of separatist guerrillas with long-standing ties to al-Qaeda. U.S. commandos will advise the Filipinos on counterterror and close-quarter fighting tactics; an intelligence source says as many as 500 U.S. troops may join the operation. President Bush also issued a warning to Iran, which the Administration believes may try to destabilize the new government in Kabul. Intelligence officials say a few hundred al-Qaeda operatives have slipped into Iran and then transited to safer territory.

    The coordinates of al-Qaeda's leaders are unknown, and it's likely most have survived the war. Even so, al-Qaeda is in tatters. "They are severely disrupted," says a senior U.S. intelligence official. "About all they can do is hide out and try not to get caught. They are not in any position to conduct operations." Most significant, the defeat of the Taliban has destroyed the sanctuary that bin Laden and his inner circle used to mastermind terror attacks. "It's like a football team," says a top Navy officer. "You may not have caught the quarterback and his key receiver, but if they can't hold a huddle, they can't score a touchdown."

    Even the huddle has shrunk. The Pentagon has crossed off the names of at least eight influential al-Qaeda officials on its kill list, and American forces have detained at least four others. American bombings last week reportedly killed Abu Hafs al-Mauritania, a high-ranking bin Laden lieutenant, and Abu Jafar al-Jaziri, an operative who handled logistics and fund raising. Those in U.S. custody include Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi and Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, both believed to be responsible for training recruits in al-Qaeda's military camps. A Kandahari commander named Nin Gyali, who is loyal to the U.S.-backed Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai, told TIME that late last year Sherzai's troops captured Abu Zubair al-Haili, whom U.S. authorities identify as a senior al-Qaeda operational planner, in the southern hamlet of Takteh Pol, on a road leading into Pakistan. "The Americans were very happy," he says. Kandahar police chief Mohammed Zabit Akram told TIME the Afghans have kept news of the arrest secret for two months. If he has been caught

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