US troops encircle Taliban hideaway

A huge manhunt for Mullah Mohammed Omar was under way in southern Afghanistan last night, with American troops closing in on a mountain village suspected of harbouring the Taliban leader.

Helicopters hovered as the US soldiers and their Afghan allies fanned across the slopes of Helmand province, in an apparent effort to surround Baghran and trap Mullah Omar, who is said to be guarded by armed loyalists.

Afghan commanders monitored by Washington and Kabul asked village elders in what was once a Taliban stronghold to confirm the cleric's presence and to hand him over without a bloodbath.

Afghanistan's prime minister, Hamid Karzai, said the mission to capture Mullah Omar started on Monday night when dozens of US marines boarded CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters at their base in Kandahar and flew in the direction of Baghran, 100 miles northwest. They were escorted by a B-52 bomber and fighter jet.

"If he's there, he'll be arrested. We are determined to see him arrested," said Mr Karzai.

US central command in Florida confirmed an operation was under way but denied the troops were actively searching for Mullah Omar. "That's not their mission," said army colonel Rick Thomas, a spokesman for the command.

"It's a place that was occupied by al-Qaida or Taliban so we're looking for whatever they may have been left behind," he said.

President George Bush raised expectations by repeating his vow that Mullah Omar would be caught. "Any time you get a person running, it means you're going to get him pretty soon. And the same with Mullah Omar. It's just a matter of time."

The US troops were deployed with full combat gear, including backpacks, helmets, goggles, M-16 rifles, grenades and anti-tank rockets that can destroy bunkers. Before leaving Kandahar the commanders were spotted studying maps and battle plans.

The rugged, remote uplands of Helmand province were Taliban heartlands before the Islamic regime's collapse, but analysts doubted that residents would risk annihilation by US bombers to shelter the cleric.

Haji Gullalai, Kandahar's anti-Taliban intelligence chief, said that Afghan allies had mobilised 2,000 fighters to comb Helmand, and that villagers had been told to surrender their alleged guest.

"We have told them to give us Omar, but no ultimatum has been issued. We have two goals: to disarm irresponsible people and to get Omar, who is a criminal for the Afghan people and the whole world."

Mr Gullalai said spies within the fugitive's entourage had betrayed his Baghran hideout last week, but the manhunt may have been aimed at capturing lesser prey.

Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan foreign minister, told the BBC that a search for Taliban leaders was under way in Helmand, but declined to specify which leaders were being hunted.

Baghran's tribal chief, Abdul Wahid, was an important Taliban military commander who could be the mission's target, Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, an ex-intelligence chief in Kandahar, told the Guardian.

"I am sure Omar is not in Baghran and I suspect the Americans are after Wahid. He is likely to surrender rather than fight against overwhelming force."

Mr Khaksar, a co-founder of the Taliban who defected to the Northern Alliance, shared President Bush's confidence that Mullah Omar's days on the run were numbered.

The Taliban's supreme leader fled Kandahar just before it fell in early December, the American price on his head second only to that for his friend Osama bin Laden. Few pretend to know which country the al-Qaida leader is in, let alone which province or district.

Few know what the reclusive fortysomething looks like but his fame and entourage made it less likely he could emulate his senior officials and melt into sympathetic rural communities.

Terror and bribes made Helmand a Taliban powerbase soon after the movement's birth in 1994, a valuable conquest because half of Afghanistan's opium came from the province.

The collapse of Mullah Omar's rule and his choice to flee rather than fight has disillusioned many former supporters.

"Omar didn't do good work by running. If I met him now I would call him an intimidated, emasculated terrorist," said Abdullah, 18, a Taliban fighter jailed in Kabul.

Meanwhile in eastern Afghanistan, reporters who visited the scene of a weekend American bombing raid in Paktia province supported Pentagon claims that the target was a compound used by Taliban and al-Qaida members and that casualties appeared to be low.

Villagers living near the compound denied the claims and said that more than 100 civilians lay dead beneath the rubble.