US warplanes have bombed a former Taliban base camp and training ground in southern Afghanistan. It was the first US airstrike on the country in days.
The compound is located south of Tora Bora, according to a US military spokesman. The area of caves was an al Qaeda hiding place. The attack followed, what the spokesman described as, "activity" at the camp. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the fighting in Afghanistan was far from over.
Meanwhile, a high-security jail to hold Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners from Afghanistan is under construction at the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The prisoners, described by Washington as battlefield detainees, have not been charged with crimes, and Donald Rumsfeld said that no decision had been made on how to conduct any military trials.
In a separate development, American officials have continued to play down suggestions that talks are underway in Afghanistan for the surrender of the defeated Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
A senior interim government official in the southern city of Kandahar said that he was involved in negotiations with fighters in a nearby province to get them to hand over Mullah Omar.
In Washington, the Pentagon has confirmed that talks had taken place with a view to obtaining the hand-over of a number of Taliban units. However, a spokesman, Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, said that he did not know anything of the whereabouts of the movement's leader.
