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U.S. attacks Taliban 'leadership compound'

U.S. Marines load weapons in a Humvee equipped with a missile launcher Tuesday near the American base in Afghanistan.

(CNN) -- U.S. warplanes launched a hastily arranged airstrike Tuesday against a compound southeast of Kandahar after receiving intelligence reports that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar might be there, a senior Pentagon official told CNN.

Sources said the pilot reported hitting the compound, but officials said they did not know if anyone on the ground was killed, or if Omar was there.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that U.S. planes attacked a "leadership compound," but would not elaborate. He said the United States was assessing the damage.

Rumsfeld was visiting the U.S. Central Command in Florida when it ordered the attack.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces searching for Osama bin Laden and his allies are focusing on two areas of Afghanistan that are not yet under opposition control.

Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, said his forces are focused on the Jalalabad area in eastern Afghanistan and the Kandahar area in the south, where opposition forces do not have firm control.

But he would not detail exactly which leaders he thought were in those areas.

"For me to say, well yes, one [area] is Osama bin Laden and the other is the leadership of the Taliban, well, I wouldn't do that because I don't think I want to tell you," Franks said.

Rumsfeld noted those areas were not the only places U.S.-led forces are looking. (Full story)

Franks also said experts are conducting tests to determine whether al Qaeda or the Taliban had plans to manufacture weapons of mass destruction.

He said 40 places in Afghanistan, most of which are now under opposition control, could have been used for chemical or biological weapons research. (Full story)

Meanwhile, near the Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, Northern Alliance fighters -- aided by U.S. and British special forces -- have nearly contained a Taliban POW uprising, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

Clarke said no U.S. military personnel were killed in the uprising but added that a U.S. government employee is missing. She said the United States is trying to find him. (Full story)

Iraqi and Arab League officials reacted negatively to President Bush's warning that if Saddam Hussein does not agree to allow international weapons inspectors "he'll find out" the consequences.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Iraqi leader should take Bush's demand as a "very sober, chilling message."

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations called Bush's statement "unfortunate," and Arab League Secretary-General Amer Moussa said U.S. military action against Iraq would be "the end" of Arab participation in the U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition.

VIDEO CNN's Brent Sadler looks at the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad, where many al Qaeda training camps were once based (November 27) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Jim Bittermann reports on talks in Germany among various representatives of the Afghans who hope to rebuild their homeland (November 27) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   QUICKVOTE Should the Northern Alliance allow international Taliban fighters who surrender to return to their home countries? Yes No View Results    CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Latest developments

• U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft said Tuesday a "number of individuals" believed to be members of the al Qaeda terrorist network have been detained as part of the investigation into the September 11 attacks. He said federal charges had been filed against 104 people, 55 of whom are in custody. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has another 548 in custody for immigration violations. (Full story)

• Federal authorities in eastern Michigan began mailing letters Tuesday asking about 560 young men from Middle Eastern and Muslim countries to submit to "voluntary" interviews with the FBI. The FBI seeks to interview about 5,000 men between the ages of 18 and 33 who have been in the United States on non-immigrant visas since January 2000. (Full story)

• In Bonn, Germany, delegates to a summit conference of Afghan groups began discussing a plan for an interim Afghan government. "Very encouraging words from the heads of the delegations this morning," said a spokesman for the top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan. (Full story)

• More than 600 U.S. Marines are on the ground in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon said the full complement of 1,000 Marines would be in place Tuesday. The Marines occupied an airport about 70 miles outside the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

• The U.S. Customs Service has given 58 airlines until Thursday to agree to submit passenger lists to federal authorities on all U.S.-bound international flights. If the airlines do not agree to turn over the information, the Customs Service told the carriers in a November 19 letter, "it will be necessary for Customs to address the security risk that such flights pose by, among other things, inspecting all hand-carried and checked baggage on every flight arriving in the United States."

• The U.N. refugee agency Tuesday announced a plan to alleviate the plight of Afghans displaced by the war and the long-standing Afghan refugee problem in general. Points of the plan include promoting the return of displaced people inside Afghanistan and providing protection and aid to refugees in neighboring countries.

• The United States formally requested the extradition Tuesday of an Algerian pilot U.S. officials have said was arrested in Berkshire, England, September 21 on allegations he trained four of the pilots in the September 11 attacks. At a court hearing, however, prosecutors said only that Lofti Raissi, 27, had been charged with falsifying Federal Aviation Administration documents. No charges linking him to the terror attacks have been filed. (Full story)

• A Taliban commander told CNN Tuesday he had surrendered, possibly a sign the Taliban are losing their grip on the Afghan border city of Spin Boldak. The commander said he wanted to fight local tribal troops, but 25 of his soldiers refused to fight. The commander told CNN's Nic Robertson that when his soldiers refused to fight, he had no choice but to surrender.

• The U.S. oil and gas industry has put itself on an increased security alert following an FBI warning that supporters of Osama bin Laden might be planning attacks, according to industry sources. (Full story)

• Belgian police late Monday detained two more people in an investigation into the assassination of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the military leader of the Northern Alliance killed two days before the September 11 attacks. (Full story)

• Five U.S. special forces troops wounded in a friendly-fire incident Monday in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, have been moved to the U.S. military hospital at Landstuhl, Germany. The troops were wounded when a smart bomb dropped from a Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet exploded too close to their position, Pentagon officials said. The intended targets were Taliban prisoners involved in an uprising against Northern Alliance forces.

• The Navy is searching for a crewmember from the USS Russell, who was discovered missing early Tuesday. The ship is stationed in the Indian Ocean, roughly 740 nautical miles southwest of India.

• A Canadian free-lance journalist has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom by Taliban in southeast Afghanistan, according to his editor at a Montreal, Canada, newspaper. The reporter is being held in Spin Boldak, but the editor of the Montreal Mirror said his captors have not said what ransom they are seeking.

• Another international journalist died Tuesday covering the war in Afghanistan, bringing to eight the total since the U.S.-led military began in October. A source for Sweden's TV4 said Tuesday cameraman Oluf Stromberg, 42, died while working in Afghanistan. No details were provided. (Full story)