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Taliban commander questioned on Omar's whereabouts

U.S. special forces soldier killed by hostile fire

An Afghan driver shows off a piece of bomb shrapnel found after a U.S. raid on an al Qaeda camp west of Kandahar.

(CNN) -- The United States bombed a suspected al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan on Friday for the second day in a row as a top Taliban commander -- believed to have been protecting leader Mullah Mohammed Omar -- surrendered, according to an Afghan official.

A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier was killed Friday, the first U.S. military death by hostile fire in Afghanistan. Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command, said the soldier was killed by small-arms fire in area around the town of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan.

Franks said the circumstances surrounding the death were unclear and the soldier's name is being withheld pending the notification of next-of-kin.

U.S. officials told CNN a CIA officer also was shot in the incident in what one official described as an "ambush." The CIA officer's wounds were not life-threatening, the officials said.

According to the officials, the mission involved a joint team of CIA and Special Forces, including members of the elite Delta Force unit.

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Three U.S. Special Forces soldiers were killed in a friendly fire incident in December near Kandahar and a CIA officer was killed during a Taliban prisoner revolt in Mazar-e Sharif in November. There have been no figures released about the number of anti-Taliban Afghan fighters who have been killed since the U.S.-airstrikes began in October.

Afghan authorities are questioning Rayes Abdul Wahid, the Taliban commander who gave himself up to government forces Friday, about the location of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, an intelligence official in Kabul told CNN.

Wahid is thought to have been protecting Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, according to the deputy head of intelligence for Afghanistan's interim administration, Abdullah Tawheedi.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials said the bombing on the suspected training camp in eastern Afghanistan was carried out at around 10:30 a.m. (1 a.m. EST) and involved six 2,000-pound precision bombs dropped from a B-52 bomber.

Military sources said there was "additional intelligence" that led to the second strike on the Zawar Kili compound southwest of Khowst.

The United States said its aerial surveillance over the past several days revealed convoys, vehicles and people moving about the camp. There has been no direct evidence that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was near the site, the officials said.

They believe the camp is a gathering point for al Qaeda leaders who are trying to regroup. The site may also be a place for fleeing fighters to congregate before possibly heading to Pakistan.

On Thursday, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the compound was close to the Pakistan border.

Myers said the compound as "fairly extensive," including a base camp, a training facility, 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 and in airstrikes last year.

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

Thursday's initial strike involved nearly 100 bombs dropped from a number of B-1 and F/A-18 aircraft, as well as direct fire from AC-130 gunships.

Karzai: Omar is a 'criminal'

Tawheedi said the Taliban commander and his troops surrendered near Baghran, in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand.

Tawheedi could not say exactly how many Taliban troops had surrendered with Wahid but he believed "all of them" had given themselves up and were handing over their weapons to government forces. Tawheedi said the commander of government forces on the scene, Mullah Shir Gul, was interrogating Wahid about the whereabouts of Omar.

In Kabul, Hamid Karzai, the chairman of Afghanistan's interim government, dismissed reports that Omar has been arrested, saying the Taliban leader remains at large.

"I don't think he's been captured yet. If he has been captured, I would know it, but I hope he'll be captured soon," Karzai said in an interview with ABC News. "He's a criminal of an international standard and he should be delivered if the U.S. wants him."

His statement was backed up by other government spokesmen, contradicting Afghanistan's Reconstruction Minister Amin Farhang, who told German TV, "I have heard that he [Omar] was arrested."

Farhang could not be contacted about his statement despite repeated calls by CNN to his hotel room and office Friday morning.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Habeel said he had heard the news of Omar being arrested, but added, "If he was arrested I would have been informed. Therefore I can say he is not arrested, yet."

A senior intelligence official in Kandahar, Nusrat Ullah, told CNN by phone Omar's arrest is a rumor. "He is still surrounded in the Baghran area of Helmand province," Ullah said.

Habeel also said he is sure the reclusive Taliban leader is in the Baghran area.

Habeel said there had been negotiations between the new Afghan government and Omar, but he would not say who conducted these talks. The negotiations were not useful, he said.

"They are stubborn people and they never came to an agreement," Habeel said.

He added that he thinks Omar is being protected by about 1,000 Taliban soldiers. The spokesman denied news reports that Omar is being protected by tribal leaders.

Asked to respond to the reports, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said the Pentagon had "no verification" that Omar was arrested.

U.S. officials have told CNN there are up to 1,500 heavily armed Taliban fighters in the Baghran area. The fighters fled there after the Taliban lost control of Kandahar.

Teams of U.S. Special Forces also are in the area, searching for Omar.

More detainees in Kandahar

At the detention facility at Kandahar's airport, 250 al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners area are being held, including 25 new detainees brought to the facility Thursday night.

Eight detainees are being held on the USS Bataan, including U.S. citizen John Walker, the U.S. Central Command said. Including other fighters being held elsewhere, the United States-led forces have detained 273 people.

The airport detention facility has been expanded to hold as many as 400, and its capacity could be increased to 500 in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Camp Rhino, the Marines' initial base of operations in southern Afghanistan, is officially closed. The Marines made some minor repairs to surrounding buildings before the camp was shut down -- or as the Marines like to say, "returned to the desert."

-- CNN Correspondents Bill Hemmer, John Raedler, Barbara Starr, and CNN's Masood Yousefzada, Kanishka Bakhshi and Jabar Amini contributed to this report.