More warplanes on alert to press Taliban's surrender of Laden
( 2001-09-22 09:51 ) (7 )

The United States ordered more warplanes to join a growing US strike force in range of Afghanistan on Friday, and Washington again warned Kabul's Taliban leaders there would be no compromise on demands that they turn over fugitive Osama bin Laden.

Defense officials, who asked not to be identified, said about a dozen more aircraft, including refueling planes, would soon be moved to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean to join nearly 350 US warplanes at land bases and on two aircraft carriers.

Heavy B-1 and B-52 bombers as well as elite Army Special Operations troops were also under orders to go to the region, although there was no immediate indication they had begun deploying.

A third US aircraft carrier was en route to the Mediterranean, and dozens of American fighters and other support aircraft have been ordered to join the force.

"The president is not whistling in the wind. And while you will not hear many details around here, we are getting ready. Make no mistake about that," one Pentagon official told Reuters.

Defense officials said that a KC-135 tanker aircraft had set up an "air bridge" to refuel bombers ordered to fly from the United States to the Gulf and the Indian Ocean and confirmed that a senior Air Force general was now in the region to oversee any strikes.

"PREPARING FOR WAR"

US officials have accused the Taliban of harboring bin Laden, the key suspect in the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on America that left more than 6,800 people dead or missing. Bush again warned the Taliban on Thursday night that they faced an attack if they continued to refuse to turn over bin Laden.

"The president has made it abundantly clear that this nation is preparing for war," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Friday, adding there would be no negotiations with the Taliban.

"Be ready," Bush told the military in his impassioned speech to Congress on Thursday night. "I have called the armed forces to alert, and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act, and you will make us proud."

He left open the possibility the military could hit not only Afghanistan but bases used by anti-American guerrillas in the Middle East. Bush has warned that not only terror groups but any countries that support them could be at risk.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld invoked on Friday a "feed and forage" law dating back to the US Civil War. The law allows the Pentagon to run up bills for the offensive buildup and a separate call-up of as many as 50,000 reserve troops for "homeland defense" under a national emergency declared by the president.

The military thus could delay payment for needed items, ranging from food to weapons, until Congress has provided the money. Lawmakers recently approved US$40 billion for military and civil recovery efforts after the terror attack, but most of that money is still in the pipeline.

Officials at US bomber bases in Louisiana, Georgia, Idaho and South Dakota refused on Friday to say whether their big planes, capable of dropping precision-guided bombs and firing long-range cruise missiles, had departed.

DOZENS OF WARPLANES ON ALERT

The bombers were expected to fly to the Gulf and the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. A total of more than 100 US warplanes, ranging from bombers to fighters and other support planes, were on alert to move there.

The elite Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which could conduct attacks on guerrilla bases, said its troops had been ordered to deploy. No details were given.

In his speech, Bush demanded that the Taliban not only turn over bin Laden and his top lieutenants but give the United States "full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating."

US officials confirmed a report in The New York Times that Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Wald, the head of American air forces assigned to the Middle East and southwest Asia, had been dispatched to the Gulf early in the week.

They refused to say exactly where he was based, but the Times said he had been sent to run the air war from a sophisticated air operations center at Prince Sultan Air Base, near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that opened this summer.

The US Air Force already has nearly 200 warplanes based in the region and involved in patrolling a no-fly zone in southern Iraq.