Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Anti-Taliban forces seek bin Laden Patrol clashes with al-Qaida near hideouts BY CHRIS TOMLINSON ASSOCIATED PRESS JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN - Anti-Taliban troops hunting Osama bin Laden said they clashed Tuesday with al-Qaida fighters near their hideouts in the towering mountains along the Pakistan border. Hundreds of fighters piled into trucks and headed to the White Mountains south of Jalalabad for the battle. Provincial security chief Hazrat Ali said he was assembling a force of about 3,000 more men to join the hunt for bin Laden. “This fight has just begun,” Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, said in Washington. Ali said a patrol of about a dozen men clashed briefly with a group of al-Qaida fighters, who abandoned a tank and scurried to higher ground. There were no ca sualties, Ali said. Mohammed Zaman, defense chief here in Nangarhar province, estimated as many as 1,200 al-Qai da fighters are in the rugged mountains, fleeing to higher alti tudes as they abandon the Tora Bora cave complex which has been the target of days of inten sive U.S. bombing. Ali said the al Qaida forces have split into groups as small as 10 men. A U.S. soldier was wounded Tuesday during the fighting around Kandahar, the Taliban militia’s southern stronghold, de fense officials in Washington said. The soldier was shot in the up per chest under the collarbone, but his injuries were not life threatening, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The soldier was work ing with one of the anti-Taliban groups surrounding Kandahar. Zaman, the Nangarhar defense chief, claimed an airstrike late Monday killed bin Laden’s finance chief, known variously as Ali Mahmoud or Sheik Saiid, and in jured bin Laden’s chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri. U.S. officials were skeptical of the claim. Sources in Egypt close to Is lamic militants in Afghanistan said Tuesday the wife and three daughters of al-Zawahri were killed in an airstrike on Kandahar on Sunday. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said severed other relatives of Arabs serving in al-Qaida died in the same airstrike. In Washington, a U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States has credible reports that mem bers of aliZawahri’s immediate family were killed in a U.S. airstrike. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would not discuss whether American ground troops were actively involved in the hunt for al-Qaida in the Jalalabad area. But he said the Americans “have been actively encouraging Afghan elements to seek out” al Qaida leaders. Gen. Tommy Franks, com mander of U.S. forces in the Afghan conflict, has confirmed that the search for bin Laden has focused on the mountains south of Jalalabad and around Kanda har. Marine reconnaissance units out of a U.S. base outside Kanda harhave begun probing deep in the desert, moving in offroad ve hicles and Humvees. Capt. David Romley, a spokesman for the Marines’ Task Force 58 at the base, did not spec ify the teams’ mission, saying only that they were “looking for threats.... Any threat is going to be a target.” The more than 1,000 Marines at the base, set up at an airfield just over a week ago, have not got ten involved in fighting as anti Taliban tribesman advance from three directions on Kandahar, the last city under Taliban control. A coalition official, speaking in Pakistan on condition of anonymi ty, said the Marines were “obvi ously not a big enough force to take Kandahar,” but would join ef forts to prevent Taliban escaping. The Taliban have vowed to de fend the city, where their move ment was organized nearly a decade ago. Tribesmen loyal to former Kan dahar governor Gul Agha fought their way onto the airport com pound a few miles south of the city Tuesday but were pushed back two miles by about 500 al-Qaida fight ers, according to Abdul Jabbar, a tribal spokesman in Pakistan. Jabbar said U.S. special forces were calling in airstrikes in sup port of Agha’s fighters. The Tal iban admitted the U.S. bombing was taking its toll. If not for the airstrikes, “peo ple like Gul Agha wouldn’t be a problem for us,” said Mullah Qasim, a Taliban commander south of Kandahar. “We could push him back not in days, but hours.” Jobs USC not receiving as many recruiters CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Larry Salters, USC Career Cen ter director, said fall recruiting has fallen 30 percent from the same time last year. Most compa nies cited the lagging economy, according to Salters. To ease student concerns, the Career Center is doing everything possible to make USC students more marketable. “We are doing everything to make opportunities available to students,” Salters said. The Center, in the Moore School of Business, sent out mail ings and more e-mails than usual to increase the number of poten tial employers. It’s also planning to hold JobFest in February to give students a chance to meet with recruiters and employers. Salters said that, while the re cruiters aren’t coming to campus as much, it doesn’t mean they aren’t continually recruiting. He said there has been an increase in electronic resume referrals. The graduate department of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications focuses on re sume building, part-time work and graduate assistants. “When we see something coming, we immediately identify students,” said Sandra Hughes, the college’s graduate program director. “We constantly change our curriculum to meet the needs of the economy.” « She said the journalism college keeps up with technology in order to have fully-trained students and credited faculty members who keep abreast of technology so they can prepare students. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com. r vwilson ***» WIRELESS Student&fww* -Discounts'. Nokia 6190 $9.99 Car Adapter FREE Hands Free Kit FREE * Unlimited Nights & Weekends * Free Long Distance Approved credit and activation required Call for your FREE credit analysis HOLIDAY SPECIAL X cingular '"'wilUUSS USC "Phone Home" ...WITH CAROLINA COLLEGIATE PHONE CARDS Now available at our ATM locations and offices! Marry phone cards come with "built-in, hidden chafes" -but not ours! The only fee attached is the mandatory $.49 if used from a pay phone... YOU GET 102 MINUTES for $10... less than 10 cents a minute! Carolina Collegiate Federal Credit Union 710 Pafaciti SKrt. Gituafti*. fcuih C«**n* 29201 a (805) 25I-S474° «-*KM76-S8M 5vm-VMteixM Gtmtiki us far fufummnu < I Adams Patient told to be who he wants CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 was evident. One man who de scribed himself as a patient on leave from a mental hospital told Adams he had inspired him to escape and that he would do so unless Adams told him differently. Adams told the man to find the person he wants to be, then find others who like that per son. Adams said that, even though he himself had left the mental hospital, he “had not become more sane. [He] just found people who liked [him] crazy.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudeskfahotmail.com. I-fr CATCH BRIEFS ONLINE AT WWW.DAILYGAMECOCK.COM We’ve got you covered. rU.S.MAMNECOHPSRE:~VE^ Every year the Marines help distribute toys to underprivileged children who would otherwise not receive a present for Christmas. If you or your organization would like to help us help the families of our community with the "Toys For Tots" program please call Staff Sargent Johnson at (803) 783-0953. I I Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Across from State House Sunday Worship 7:45, 9 & 11:30 a.m.—Cathedral 11:30 a.m.& 6:00p.m.— Keenan Chapel Weekday Eucharist in Keenan Chapel 771-7300 www.trinityepiscopalcathedral.org St. Thomas More Catholic Center Rev. Tim Lijewski Mass Schedule Sacrament of Penance Chaplin Saturday 4:30 pm Saturday 3:00 pm-4:00 pm Sunday 11 am, 7:30 pm or by appointment Sr. Julienne Guy OSU Director of Christian Formation Newman Club Tuesday 7:00 pm 1610 Greene St. 799-5870 (Across from School of Nursing) Columbia - Five Points (behind Harper's) Proclaiming Christ through the Scriptures and Sacraments |Ad»l^ibnClmS|30MHhUlyCommiiolonJ0|3tomM™b«rr«r»S^|^™^k|lreSMaM«rl^yM^ ^^nwTTfiwwiTywswjnfTfj^MiTf^^^