KANDAHAR, Afghanistan?U.S. special forces and their Afghan allies confiscated thousands of weapons from a local warlord Wednesday, a top aide to Kandarhar’s governor said, as they pressed the search for Taliban and al Qaeda renegades in southern Afghanistan.
At the U.S. military base outside Kandahar, the FBI director said members of Osama bin Laden’s terror network detained here have provided valuable information that has prevented new attacks against U.S. targets worldwide.
Elsewhere, tensions were reported rising around the eastern town of Khost because of rivalries between local warlords in an area believed to include Taliban and al Qaeda renegades.
In the southern province of Helmand, anti-Taliban fighters and U.S. special forces searched house-to-house in four villages looking for al Qaeda and Taliban renegades, including the deposed Islamic militia’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, according to Afghan sources.
The search turned up no trace of Omar, who refused to turn over bin Laden for his role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
However, special forces and their Afghan allies confiscated about 2,000 weapons ranging from small arms to heavy artillery, according to Khalid Pashtun, an aide to Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha.
Pashtun said the weapons were taken without incident Wednesday from Haji Bashar, a local warlord in Helmand province, as part of a campaign to bolster security in the region.
Helmand and other southern provinces were Taliban strongholds and among the last areas handed over by the Islamic militia after it collapsed last year following intense U.S. airstrikes and attacks by the U.S.-backed northern alliance.
The U.S.-led coalition has been trying to get weapons out of the hands of local warlords whose support for the new interim Afghan government is in doubt. The United States has allied itself with other powerbrokers, including Agha, in hopes they can maintain order and work with the central government in Kabul.
Last week, efforts to collect weapons triggered brief clashes near the northern city of Kunduz with local leaders who did not want to surrender their guns, Afghan sources said on condition of anonymity.
After the Taliban collapse, hundreds of prisoners were taken to the U.S. base at Kandahar airport for interrogation and ultimately for transfer to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
During an unannounced visit Wednesday to the Kandahar base, FBI Director Robert Mueller said some of those prisoners had provided valuable information that has helped authorities prevent new terrorist attacks.
“Information we have picked up since the war has prevented additional attacks around the world,” Mueller said. “Interrogations from al Qaeda members detained here in Afghanistan as well as documents?has prevented additional attacks against U.S. facilities around the world.”
Mueller refused to elaborate. However, one prisoner?al Qaeda training camp commander Ibn Al-Shaykh al Libi?warned of an impending attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen this week, according to Yemeni officials.
Last month, Singapore authorities arrested suspects they said were plotting attacks against the U.S. Embassy and other targets. The authorities said handwritten notes and a videotape found in Afghanistan helped lead them to the suspects.
In Washington, a senior defense official said the Pentagon held off on sending more al Qaeda and Taliban figures from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay for security reasons. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.