Saddam's captors turn their eyes on Bin Laden
The US is moving a secret commando unit from Iraq to Afghanistan to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, it was reported in Washington today.
A Pentagon official told the Washington Times there were two reasons for repositioning parts of Task Force 121:
* First, most high-value human targets in Iraq, including Saddam Hussein, have been caught or killed.
* Second, intelligence reports are increasing on the whereabouts of bin Laden, the terror leader behind the September 11 attacks.
“Iraq has become more of a policing problem than a hunt for high-value Iraqis, the official said. Afghanistan is the place where 121 can do more.”
Task Force 121 is a mix of army Delta Force soldiers and Navy SEALs based at Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina
There are also reports in Britain that SAS units have been deployed to Afghanistan.
Military sources told the Times that reports of al-Qaida terror leader bin Laden’s movements are becoming more numerous as the fugitive Saudi multi-millionaire, hides in the mountainous terrain straddling the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Task Force 121 was part of the team that raided an Iraqi farm and found Saddam hidden in a hole.
Speculation that the United States is close to finding bin Laden heightened last month when military officers in Afghanistan predicted that the terror leader would be killed or captured by year’s end.
“We have a variety of intelligence, and we’re sure we’re going to catch Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar this year,” Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said last month.
“We’ve learned lessons from Iraq, and we’re getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people.”
Bin Laden’s capture would be a major boost to President George Bush during election year.
