Anti-Taliban forces search for Omar
December 31, 2001 Posted: 6:59 p.m. EST (2359 GMT)
British Royal Marines, who make up the vanguard of an international peacekeeping mission, stand guard near Bagram, Afghanistan
Anti-Taliban forces Monday moved toward the Baghran area where Pentagon sources said they believe Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is hiding. 

U.S. officials said they had received credible reports that Omar may have fled to Baghran after abandoning Kandahar, the Taliban's political and spiritual base in early December. Hundreds or thousands of his Taliban followers may be with Omar, Pentagon officials said

Baghran is in Helman province, about 118 miles (190 kilometers) northwest of Kandahar 

There have also been intelligence reports al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might be in the same general region after escaping from the Tora Bora cave region in mid-December. But Pentagon officials added they do not know where bin Laden is. 

Officials said U.S. Special Forces are on the ground in the region working with anti-Taliban forces to provide intelligence and targeting assistance for possible U.S. airstrikes in coming days.

Meanwhile, an additional 50 British soldiers moved into the Afghan capital Monday as British and local officials continued to work on a final agreement over the role of a multinational security force, British military officials said. 

The extra troops moved into Kabul from a British staging area at Bagram air base about an hour's drive north of the capital. 

They join about 160 British soldiers already in Kabul, many doing joint security patrols with Afghan police.

British and Afghan officials initialed an agreement Monday morning on the role and operations of a multinational security force, British military officials said. 

An International Security Assistance Force for Afghanistan was originally agreed to in a Bonn, Germany, pact establishing an interim administration to replace the ousted Taliban. 

The agreement was expected to be handed over to other countries contributing to the international force for their approval. 

Latest developments
• A U.S. Special Forces soldier was shot and wounded Monday near Jalalabad when his vehicle came under enemy fire, the U.S. Central Command said. The other Special Forces soldiers in the vehicle returned fire and a "quick reaction force" came to their aid. The enemy forces apparently fled. The soldier was being treated for a leg wound that was not life threatening, the Central Command said. 

• President Bush Monday named Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad, a special assistant on the National Security Council, to the new position of special presidential envoy for Afghanistan. Khalilzad -- an Afghan native -- will work with the U.N. representative to Afghanistan. 

• A computer taken from a building used by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda in Afghanistan contains letters and memos about the organization's internal operations, justifications for attacks, and efforts to obtain chemical weapons, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. (Full story) 

• An unmanned aerial vehicle crashed early Sunday on a routine surveillance mission in Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command said Monday. Enemy fire did not hit the U.S. Air Force RQ-4A Global Hawk, the statement said, but officials would not disclose further details. The aircraft will be recovered, the statement said. 

• Troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division are bound for Afghanistan to replace the Marine contingent in Kandahar, the Pentagon said Sunday. (Full story) 

• Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Florida, told CNN Sunday the latest intelligence reports indicate "the high probabilities are" that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is still alive. Graham said the "trail has gone cold as to whether he's still in the caves of Tora Bora or, in fact, has slipped out into Pakistan." 

• U.S. forces in Afghanistan now have 180 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in custody -- 172 at facilities in Kandahar, Mazar-e Sharif and the Bagram airbase north of Kabul, and eight others, including American Taliban fighter John Walker, aboard the USS Bataan