Mullah Mohammed Omar

An early-morning assault Saturday by American ground forces in southern Afghanistan targeted the home of the ruling Taliban's leader as well as a military airfield, U.S. officials said, characterizing it as the first of many raids designed to decimate terrorist networks. More than 100 Army Rangers and other U.S. commandos participating in the operation parachuted into a Taliban leadership complex near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and an airfield some distance away, said Gen. Richard B.

With President Bush declaring that he wants Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," the supreme leader of Afghanistan's Taliban regime on Monday put the fate of the suspected terrorist mastermind--and the country--in the hands of the nation's Islamic clerics. Mullah Mohammed Omar asked a panel of clerics to decide whether to hand over Bin Laden after Omar received a blunt warning from his main ally, neighboring Pakistan, about the dangers facing Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, met with Omar in his stronghold, the southern city of Kandahar, and told him that he faced an urgent choice: Surrender Bin Laden or suffer massive attacks by U.S. forces, said a senior Pakistani diplomat.

The Taliban offered to stop growing poppies--which help make Afghanistan the world's second-largest opium producer after the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia--in exchange for recognition by the United Nations as the government of the country. Mullah Mohammed Omar, the supreme leader of the Islamic militia, made the offer in remarks that were broadcast by the Taliban over the radio. Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.