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The Salt Lake Tribune WAR ON TERRORISM AS Thursday, November 22, 2001 Remains of Camp Show HowFighters Lived Empty tomato cans, crumpled weapons, mud-brick buildings are all that is left ofterrorist base BYCHRIS TOMLINSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DARUNTA, Afghanistan Scattered around the 15foot-deep craters left by American bombs laythe detritus of one of Osama bin Laden's formerterrorist camps: spent anti-aircraft shells, mortar detona tors, collapsed buildings and payroll Marco Di Lauro/The Associated Press AbdulWakil shows the solution used to make anthrax vaccine in a Ministry of Agriculture lab in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday. Taliban HadTies to Lab Working With Anthrax BY KATHY GANNON ‘when his colleagues began to THEASSOCIATEDPRESS speak, he snapped at them in Farsi, the language used in Iran andparts of Afghanistan, saying: “Listen to me! Listen to KABUL, Afghanistan — At an Agriculture Ministry laboratory outside Kabul, scientists worked with anthrax. If Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network wanted to get its hands on the deadly substance, this labora- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said bin Laden probablyhad some chemical or biological weapons, and that U.S. forces bombed somesites U.S. bombing, could have been asource. The now-defeated Taliban regime has long denied being in Afghanistan that could have ical weaponsresearch, but it seemsto have takenan interest in the work being done at the lab, according to scientists there, and it was repeatedly hit up machine gunnests at the base. Nestled in the desert hills six miles out side the northeasterncityofJalalabad, the campwas spread out overfivebarren hill tops, each with a fewanti-aircraft guns and artillery pieces to protectit. The base was built by the Soviet protect a hydroelectric dam in the valley below,at one end ofa reservoirfilled with funoff from a mountain range 35 miles to the west. Bin Ladenfirst arrived at the base in the late 1980s, said Mohammed Omar Kaswar,leaderin a nearbyvillage abs took their wives and, children away gan arriving with their families Bin Laden himself.moved to Afghani. stan in 1996 a few months before theTali ban seized power in Kabul. Kaswar and leaders of the mujahideen who fought the Soviets say theyfell out with bin Laden whenheallied himself with theTaliban. At its height, the population of the camp Arab and Pakistani fighters, along with their families reached 6,000people, vil. lagers said. . Kaswar said the Arabs never entered his village, nor did they.allowvisitors on the base, encircled with concertina wire. They bought all their supplies in Jalalabad. Thebuildings were simplestructures, with outdoor kitchens and pit latrines, said Shir Mohammed, a mujahideen com mander whose men now control the Darunta base. Mohammed would visit’ Darunta before 1996, when the Taliban “There was a very big housefor the Ar- abs,but it was destroyedbythe bombs,” he Said. “Before the bombing started, the Arfromhere. Most escaped, but some died.” Near theold kitchen were empty cans of tomatoes from Russiaandclarified butter from a Pakistani aid agency. The weapons were from the former Soviet Union. A fewfighters didfire the no crumpled anti-aircraft guns at the attack- ingplanes whenthe bombing beganOct. 28, ar said. Thousands of pages of documents were also left behind, including a payroll ledger withthe namesandranksof the men based at Darunta. There was alsoaletter, found next to someold syringes, to an Egyptian doctor from his wife, which encouraged him to stay strong andassuredherlovefor him. he cited a verse from the Quran, Islam’s holy book, intheletter. “Fight themuntil thereis no. more conflict and all faith goes to God,” theletter ended. been involved in producing them. It was not clear whether the governmentlaboratory was on thelist of suspects. U.S. teams have taken:samples from some sites in’ Afghanistan where al-Qaida sametime, leaders of the anti Taliban Northern Alliance want to move heavily armed AC-130 warplanes close to pursued negotiations toward northern Afghanistan so they @ Continued from A-1 ers and Talibansoldiers holed soldiers in the battle for Kunduz. Taliban front lines are clearly visible outside Kunduz, dugin across aroad less than a kilometer from Northern. Alli up inside, has raised fears of a bloodybattle. where the population is predominantly ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks and Shiite Muslim Haz- might have made chemical or biological weapons, Gen. Peter aras. People in the south are Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, said Wed- Taliban. + official during the past five ofthose test results have come nesday at the Pentagon. None backyet. That “the one place where mostly ethnic Pashtuns like the They “are with us and they have promised to fight, and that’s why we cannotleave,” Aghasaid. “This is the base for They did not say whether the only vial that had English the Islamic movement.” Taliban fighters also would be Mullah Qari Abdullah showed a specific interest in anthrax, and thescientists insisted their work was aimed purely at de- on it said ‘anthrax’ kind of fighting in territory that thev gives you pause,” Pace said. know well, he added. Butin recentdays, a few Pa- veloping animal vaccines. ae and his colleague, Abdul Wakil, did not say whether any “The ‘Taliban officer in charge, Mullah Qari Abdullah, would come here regularly,” said Mohammed Ali, speaking in the lab amid shardsof glass from bomb-shattered bottles. Hedeclined to elaborate, and 1993, he said, when Arabs loyal to him be Taliban Reject Power-Sharing With Their Foes by U.S. bombers. The lab, in a two-story mountainside building, was frequently visited by a Taliban years, according to scientists interviewed there Tuesday. forced the mujahideen into the mountains. me!” tory, now badly damaged by involved in chemical or biolog- records. What was once oneof the most well known bin Laden camps is nowrubble, pounded bya dozen 1,000-pound bombs. Already,anti-Taliban militiamen haveset “Osama bin Laden was with us here during thejihadagainst the Russians,” he. said. Bin Laden’s al-Qaida network arrived and ‘added more mud-brick buildings in ae doing the analysis on shtun tribal leaders reportedly of their research was transferred to al-Qaida or used in have turned away from the Taliban and called for insurrection against the regime. surrenderof Taliban forces in Kunduz. 2 The face-off in Kunduz, where Northern Alliance forces surround the city with thousandsof non-Afghanfight- reachinthelate 1990s to nearly theentire country. Agha denied reports /that ancepositions. Northern Alli ance fighters walked up and anti-Taliban Pashtun fribal leaders have been negotiating downtheroad andacrossfields with Taliban representatives pended attacks on Kunduz He trying to negotiate the in front of the Taliban positions all day. Othersslept openly on in Kandahartoat least withdrawfromtheregion to avert tered by the hundreds in the further U.S. bombings. “There areno tribal negoti middleof the road, apparently ations,” unafraid opponents send envoys to Kan urrender, vadlianes leaders claim they. have 30,000 troops and 100 tanks ringing Kunduz, as well as a numberof heavyartillery pieces and truck-mounted rocket launchers. ‘We'll start dur attack tomorrow or the dayafter to morrowif they do not surren der to us,” said Northern Alli. ance leader Nazeed Muhammed, who commands the Bangi front, one of four surrounding Kunduz. weapons experiments. But they acknowledged that gathered foreign journalists Wednesday to counter claims the lab’s activities meant the Taliban had access to anthrax. that it was negotiating withdrawal or surrender. At the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. strategists NSUg trol of just four or five prov: inces in southern Afghanistan, where the group first came to power before expanding its Alliance leaders have sus: “There is no cease-fire after that. Their timeis finished,” he said. In Kandahar, the Taliban can support Northern Alliance some of whomare al-Qaida members. TheTaliban remainin con. the top of mudhousesor clus. of an artillery or rocketattack. In Chogha, about 20 miles from Kunduz, the Northern Al hesaid. If the Pashtun dahar“theywill be returned.” Healso flatly rejected any possibility of a power-sharing liance exchanged four foreign Taliban prisoners Wednesday agreement with the Northern Alliance and dismissedefforts for the bodies of about 40 dead NorthernAlliancesoldiers who by former Afghan king MohammedZahir Shaly to forge.a broad-based post-Taliban coalition government. ° layina field. 5 They were ambushed and killed last week when theywent out to meet a groupof Taliban fighters whom they believed were defecting. Evenif Taliban soldiers give up, the alliance appears prepared and even eager to fight the non-Afghans,~ Zahir Shah and the North rn Alliance are backed by the United States and Great Brit ain, he said, and “foreign in- tervention and foreign interference can never bring peace to ournation.” a AFTER-T HANKSGIVING SALE 7 BRING IN YOUR STOREWIDE BONUS COUPONS GOLDTOL SALE 4.25 GOLD TOE DRESS FASHION SOCKS Patterns. Reg. 8.50. 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