In southern Afghanistan, a tribal intelligence officer said Taliban leader Mohammed Omar had fled to Baghran, in the south-central mountain foothills with 300 to 400 fighters, but there was no immediate plan to pursue him. "Every hour, we're getting reports of where he is," said Haji Gulalai, intelligence chief for Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha. "America knows where he is. But we need to be in the same area to help guide any bombing, near Baghran," Gulalai said. "Without our help, America will end up bombing civilian areas." 

Baghran is a gateway to Turkmenistan, a notorious smugglers' route leading to the breakaway republic of Chechnya, where bin Laden support remains strong. Pakistan, meanwhile, said 88 al-Qaida members have recently been arrested. Some may have been questioned by U.S. officials. American FBI agents arrived Tuesday in southern Afghanistan to interrogate new prisoners of war as part of its domestic war on terrorism. 

Fifteen captives from the Mazar-Sharif area arrived Tuesday night under heavy guard at the newly created prisoner-of-war camp at the U.S. Marines' new base at Kandahar airport. No details were available on their nationalities or backgrounds. Two arrived in the back of a Humvee and appeared to have trouble walking. 

Efforts continued to assemble an international peacekeeping force by Saturday, when the interim government under Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai is scheduled to assume office in the capital, Kabul. Britain will lead the force and contribute up to 1,500 troops, pending approval from the U.N. Security Council approves the deployment. 

Hermit 
No Western journalist has ever met Mullah Omar, who leaves virtually all contact with the outside world to his foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkil.  To many ordinary Afghans he is just a name, but those who have seen him say he is relatively young - in his early 40s - and tall, with a black beard and a black turban.  His right eye was damaged by shrapnel when he was fighting Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers in the 1980s.  He rarely leaves the southern city of Kandahar where he lives in a large house that was reportedly built for him by Bin Laden.  Before the current crisis, it was thought that the two spoke daily by satellite telephone, and some reports suggest that they also met for fishing trips. 

Invisible fist
Under Mullah Omar's rule, a strict interpretation of Islamic law was imposed on Afghanistan under Taleban control.   Women were strongly discouraged from leaving their homes, denied schooling and jobs and forced to fully cover themselves.   Women found guilty of adultery were stoned to death, homosexuals crushed under brick walls, thieves' hands amputated and murderers publicly executed by victims' families.  Edicts from Mullah Omar have included the death sentence for anyone converting to another religion, as well as the infamous orders to destroy the country's ancient Buddha statues.  When the Taleban first arrived in Kabul in the mid-1990s, many ordinary Afghans welcomed them and Omar as heralding an end to the chaos caused by warring factions within the government. 
Now a new chaos is unfurling.  Some months ago Mullah Omar told Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yousifzei, the first journalist to interview him, that in his lifetime half of Afghanistan had already been destroyed.  He was ready to see the other half destroyed rather than give up Osama Bin Laden, he said.