COMPLETE COVERAGE | FRONT LINES | AMERICA AT HOME | INTERACTIVES »

Special Forces intensify hunt for Omar

Taliban fighters negotiating possible surrender

U.S. Marines carry ammunition on the base at the Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Special Forces stepped up the hunt for the Taliban's leader Thursday as U.S. aircraft bombed an al Qaeda compound in eastern Afghanistan.

Negotiations over the possible surrender of 1,500 Taliban fighters and anti-Taliban forces also were ongoing in the Baghran district of Helmand province, about 120 miles northwest of Kandahar.

There are concerns that the Taliban fighters are harboring the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. U.S. Special Forces reportedly have fanned out in groups of about 12 each to search the area for Omar, as well as accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Abdullah Tawheedi, deputy head of intelligence in the interim Afghan administration, confirmed the talks but refused to characterize the issues being discussed or where the two sides stood. The fighters fled Kandahar in December when it was turned over the anti-Taliban forces.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was "mindless" for him to say whether the military had intelligence information on the whereabouts of Omar or bin Laden.

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

"We we're looking for them, we intend to find them and we intend to capture or kill them, and that's the best we can do," he said.

Rumsfeld said the interim Afghan government is in agreement with the United States on finding the remaining Taliban and al Qaeda leaders and fighters inside Afghanistan.

"They want the Taliban caught. They agree with us, they want the al Qaeda the dickens out of their country," he said.

Hamid Karzai, chairman of Afghanistan's interim government, said Tuesday that he gave his personal approval for an Afghan-led mission to track down Omar but did not say where the troops are looking.

U.S. airstrike targets terrorist camp

A U.S. airstrike hit a compound the Pentagon said was used by al Qaeda near Khowst at 8 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. EST). The compound was hit by B-1 bombers, F-18 fighter jets and AC-130 gunships.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staffs, said in Washington at a Pentagon briefing that the target included a base camp, leadership compound and some caves. The United States hit the camp with a cruise missile attack following the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

"It was struck by cruise missiles in 1998 and it has been a place where the al Qaeda goes to regroup," Myers said.

Earlier on Thursday, several military sources told CNN that U.S. intelligence had identified a pocket of Taliban and al Qaeda resistance around the towns of Khowst and Gardez in Paktia province, numbering perhaps hundreds of fighters.

The sources said this is one of the areas where fighters have regrouped and pose the risk of becoming a guerrilla force. U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said Wednesday the Pentagon believes that al Qaeda fighters remaining in Afghanistan have broken down into smaller groups and may be trying to regroup while others may have fled to neighboring Pakistan,.

The Pentagon wants to conduct airstrikes in the region as it finds clear targets, but the interim Afghan government has expressed concerns about civilian casualties in recent strikes.

War has disrupted al Qaeda

Rumsfeld also said he believed that al Qaeda has been "very disrupted" by the war on terrorism.

"Their communications three months ago were relatively easy, and they're much more difficult today, because there's an awful lot more people attentive to that," he said. "Their ability to move freely around the world was much easier three months ago than it is today."

He said the terrorist network has infiltrated "dozens and dozens" of countries but said only a small fraction of those countries could be described as active hosts to the network.

"Of those, I think, that in some cases they've become less hospitable," he said. "They've decided after what's happened in recent months that it's not their first choice to be thought of as a place that is hospitable to the al Qaeda.

Marine recover helicopter

In Kandahar, a group of Taliban fighters holed up on an abandoned building were surrounded and gave up after an hourlong firefight with anti-Taliban forces.

A rocket-propelled grenade was fired into the building before the Taliban troops gave up. They were taken away to a local police station for questioning.

The U.S. Marines conducted what they described as an intelligence-gathering mission two nights ago, searching a compound that they believed had been used by Omar. Marine sources said a "modest" amount of intelligence had been gathered in that operation.

In another development, Marines recovered a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter that suffered a hard landing at the desert area northwest of Kandahar last Friday. While the crew came back over the weekend, the helicopter was repaired in the field and was flown safely back to Kandahar on Wednesday.

The Marines also honored Cpl. C.T. Chandler, who lost his left foot in early December in a mine-sweeping operation at the Kandahar airport, by naming a firing range after him. Chandler is recovering at a hospital in Washington.

CNN Correspondents Barbara Starr and Bill Hemmer contributed to this report.