Afghan leader says rooting out terror main challenge to country

Associated Press WriterKANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Sitting in the sprawling compound of the defeated Taliban leader, Afghanistan's interim ruler pledged Monday to build a new nation -- but said the country must first destroy the terrorists who have held it hostage.

Hamid Karzai, newly appointed head of a U.N.-backed transitional government, also urged the United States not to turn its back on his country once the Afghan phase of the war against terrorism is over.

"U.S. help is critical," Karzai told a group of American and European journalists in the garish residence of supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who disappeared last week when Taliban rule collapsed. "Please do not turn away again."

Karzai said Afghanistan faces a daunting task to build a functioning state on the wreckage of 23 years of war, "but first we must root out all the terrorists... . We are going after all of al-Qaida's safe houses."

He said he was appealing to all Afghans to look for Omar and terror suspect Osama bin Laden -- a message he says he has been delivering personally to village elders and tribal leaders.

Journalists reached Kandahar, birthplace of the defeated Taliban, after negotiating their way across the border with Pakistan and then traveling down the main highway. The roadside was littered with bomb-shattered wreckage of cars, trucks and the occasional tank damaged in U.S. airstrikes.

After seeing Karzai at Omar's house, reporters were taken to the governor's mansion a few miles away, where dozens of bearded armed men milled about, some sleeping, others eating oranges or smoking cigarettes.

Taliban forces agreed to surrender Kandahar on Thursday, but then fled with their al-Qaida allies, leaving rival anti-Taliban factions in control of Afghanistan's second-largest city.

Karzai rushed to Kandahar and negotiated a power-sharing deal which has brought peace to the city -- at least for now.

Having defused tensions between the factions, Karzai set about giving the city what he called "the first taste of democracy."

He met with tribal leaders from five southern provinces and addressed local elders and influential residents of Kandahar. He also saw leaders of the Hindu and Shiite Muslim communities, both of which were discriminated against under the Taliban.

One of Karzai's first acts was to order the release of political prisoners from Taliban jails. Some 1,600 people who had been taken to Kandahar's prison from across the country were freed Monday, according to Karzai spokesman Mullah Abdul Qadir.

Karzai, an urbane former deputy foreign minister whose Popolzai tribe is among the most powerful in southern Afghanistan, was thrust into national leadership when Afghan factions at a U.N.-sponsored conference in Germany chose him to head a 30-member administration to govern the country for six months starting Dec. 22.

For weeks, Karzai has been in southern Afghanistan trying to organize his Pashtun ethnic group against the Taliban. Twice he escaped death -- once when U.S. helicopters rescued him from approaching Taliban and again last week when he was slightly injured in a misguided U.S. airstrike that killed three American soldiers and six anti-Taliban fighters.

Karzai told reporters he was looking forward to the arrival of an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan and, although the U.S. bombing of Taliban and al-Qaida positions should stop once terrorist cells are destroyed, "we are not finished yet with the terrorists."

He urged the United States not to abandon Afghanistan after the defeat of al-Qaida, bin Laden's terrorist network, and pleaded for international help in rebuilding his nation.

"The urgent priority is disarming all the warring factions. I see no end to the Afghan troubles until the guns stop," Karzai added. "Happiness comes with security and order. We are bringing law and order."

Many Afghans believe the U.S. decision to disassociate itself with their country after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989 led to the chaos that produced the Taliban and allowed them to transform this country into a base for global terrorism.

The United States launched its military campaign against the Taliban on Oct. 7 after they refused to hand over bin Laden for his alleged role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Two months of U.S. airstrikes helped anti-Taliban forces unseat the hard-line militia, but key Taliban and al-Qaida leaders remain at large.

If Omar is caught, he said, he should face justice.

"He should be tried anywhere necessary," Karzai said. "As he had committed crimes against the Afghan people, he should have an Afghan court. But he has committed crimes against the international community (as well), and he will be punished for this."

When Kandahar fell, Karzai sparked controversy for refusing to say he would arrest Omar, appealing instead for the Taliban leader to renounce terrorism. U.S. officials said they would have to rethink their alliances in Afghanistan if anyone offered Omar amnesty.

Karzai said he never made such an offer.

"We never offered any amnesty to Mullah Omar," he said. "Time was given to him to renounce terrorism. He never did, so a warrant was issued for his arrest."