An Afghan member of al-Qaida, with his hands tied with rope, walks past two other al-Qaida prisoners put on display by local Afghan commanders in Agom, Afghanistan at the base of the White Mountains Monday. (AP Photo)

Five Prisoners of War in U.S. Custody

December 17, 2001, 07:30 AM

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By Susanne M. Schafer, AP Staff

WASHINGTON -- Five prisoners from the war in Afghanistan are in American custody, the Pentagon said Monday.

The captives have been take to the USS Peleliu, a Navy helicopter assault ship in the region, said Defense Department spokesman Richard McGraw.

Defense Secretary Donald H.Rumsfeld said the search is on for more amid fighting in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan near Tora Bora, where Afghan fighters say they have taken over the last al-Qaida stronghold.

"There's still fighting going on there," there are still people searching the area, in caves and tunnels, looking for al-Qaida fighters, Rumsfeld told reporters Monday while flying to the NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels.

Asked whether senior al-Qaida leaders had managed to escape, Rumsfeld said, "We're still trying to sort out who we have, and who we don't have, and who has been killed."

McGraw did not identify the detainees on the Peleliu. But on Monday, David Hicks, a 26-year-old Australian captured while fighting with the Taliban, was handed over to U.S. forces and flown to the ship, the Australian government said.

Before the weekend, the only known person in U.S. hands was John Walker, a 20-year-old American found with Taliban forces last month.

Rumsfeld said he had heard of 30 or 31 prisoners in custody around Tora Bora as of Sunday night, but that many of their identities remained unclear, so it was impossible to say definitively whether any were high-ranking leaders.

They are most likely being held by Afghan forces, not Americans, because the special forces in the area have no easy way to hold prisoners. He said America would seek to take control and move elsewhere those it wants to interrogate. It is building a detention center at Camp Rhino near Kandahar.

"They also interestingly seem to have captured a good deal of Chinese ammunition," he said, referring to the search of caves near Tora Bora. The Chinese made ammunition for some weapons of the Soviet era, which fighters in Afghanistan are believed to use.

"They are still aggressively pursuing al-Qaida and Taliban people in that region," Rumsfeld said.

Of bin Laden, he said, "There is a question mark as to his exact location." Because U.S. officials don't know for sure that he was in the Tora Bora region, it's impossible to know if he has escaped, Rumsfeld said.

"Until we catch him -- which we will -- we won't know precisely where he's been," Rumsfeld said

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell says U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan once an international security force is in place under a United Nations mandate, but most will be withdrawn.

"U.S. troops will stay there until they have accomplished their mission, which is to defeat the Taliban, well under way; destroy al-Qaida, well under way; and do everything they can to find Osama bin Laden," Powell said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "there will come a time when that mission will have been completed" and an international peacekeeping force will arrive.

"I expect that most U.S. troops will leave at that time, although some troops may remain involved in enabling the international security force to get in and help sustain them," he said.

Powell did not specify how long that might take.

Rumsfeld said an international security force of between 3,000 to 5,000 troops from various countries will enter the Afghan capital of Kabul after the country's new interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, takes office Saturday.

Rumsfeld said the United States will provide support, such as airlifts, a "rapid reaction" force in case trouble breaks out and assistance with intelligence operations.

There are "rumblings" that a similar security force for one or two other Afghan cities is under consideration, the defense secretary added during his first visit to Afghanistan since the U.S.-led military campaign there began more than 10 weeks ago.

Powell was asked whether the United States might offer troops as part of the U.N. security force.

"I don't expect that you will see U.S. combat troops there for any length of time as part of that international security force," he said. "But to get that kind of a force into a remote place like Afghanistan, the U.S. has certain capabilities that I'm sure will be called upon by the force and by the United Nations."

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)