Some Taliban, al Qaeda members may have escaped

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is learning more about the location of Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, including some believed to have escaped from Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Rumsfeld said the United States has uncovered more intelligence as U.S. forces have gained access to areas where the Taliban and al Qaeda once lived.

"Each day we learn more and know more," he said at a Pentagon briefing. "As more address books are found and phone books are found and computer hard drives are found as people have left areas, clearly our knowledge base is going up."

"In some instances, people have been killed and in still other instances they've been wounded. And still others, we have reason to believe they might have escaped to another country. In other cases, we don't know where they are," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld did not say what country or countries the leaders might have fled to, nor did he identify who might have slipped out of Afghanistan.

He stressed the relentless bomb campaign has taken its toll on the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and that the United States would continue trying to root them out.

"Our interest ... is to capture or kill all the al Qaeda and prevent them from escaping into other locations where they can continue their terrorist activities," Rumsfeld said.

"It is to capture or kill the senior Taliban leadership. And it is to disarm the rest of the Taliban."

In one case, he said a "relatively senior, mid-level Taliban or al Qaeda" member was wounded, extracted by Taliban sympathizers and "taken out of the country somehow or another to receive medical attention."

Rumsfeld said U.S. forces are assisting anti-Taliban fighters trying to prevent the escape of al Qaeda fighters pushed away from a major base at Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan.

Pentagon sources told CNN that AC-130 gunships are patrolling a 25-mile (40-kilometer) stretch along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border near Tora Bora to cut off al Qaeda or Taliban members trying to sneak across the border.

Asked if Pakistan was committed to rounding up any leaders who might try to escape through Pakistan, Rumsfeld said, "It's safe to say that Pakistan has been very cooperative."

Rumsfeld said the battle in Afghanistan is far from over.

"We all know that a wounded animal can be dangerous, and so too the Taliban and al Qaeda can hide in the mountains. They can hide in caves and, indeed, they can hide in cities. And I know they are," he said.