Army says pamphlets offer cash rewards for Westerners

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Al-Qaida and Taliban supporters in Afghanistan are offering rewards of up to $100,000 for capturing or killing Westerners, U.S. Army officials said Friday.

Pamphlets slipped under people's doors during the night promise $50,000 for any Westerner delivered dead, and double that for people taken alive, said Maj. Iris Hurd, an officer with the Army's Information Operations division.

The pamphlets, known in Afghanistan as "night letters," also threaten Afghans with violence if they support the coalition troops or the interim administration of Hamid Karzai, Hurd said.

Secret pamphlets

Hurd would not show any of the pamphlets, but said coalition forces had some in hand. She would not elaborate on whether they contained information about how the rewards were to be collected.

A set of pamphlets circulating last month among Afghan refugees in Pakistan and in Afghanistan denounced Karzai's interim government as "traitors to Islam" and warned that those who fight alongside the Americans will someday "suffer the consequences."

Hurd said last month's pamphlets include allegations that Americans used chemical and biological weapons to kill thousands of people in last year's bombing campaign against the Taliban and the al-Qaida terrorist network. Others include stories of personal sacrifice and so-called "miracles" in the battle against the U.S.-led coalition -- all apparently designed to inspire young Afghan males to take up the fight and to drive home the message that God is on the Taliban's side.

Many militants arrested

Afghan forces have rounded up hundreds of suspected anti-government militants in recent days in Kabul, accused by officials of plotting to overthrow the government and also planning attacks on foreigners. Scores have been released, but 160 remain under arrest, Afghan officials have said.

However, Flight Lt. Tony Marshall, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, said the peacekeepers providing security in the capital do not know of any new threats against foreigners. He said ISAF commanders met with Afghan authorities to seek an explanation for the arrests.

"If there was going to be some sort of coup, perhaps you should let us know about it," was how Marshall characterized the ISAF commanders' inquiry.

Amnesty International suggested that "internal political opposition" may have motivated the arrests, and urged that the names and locations of those arrested be released and that they be given access to their families, lawyers and medical help.

Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, another ISAF spokesman, said the peacekeepers in Kabul saw no reason to change their operations in light of the allegation that those arrested had been planning attacks on foreigners.

"The city remains quiet. We have not seen any ripples in day-to-day life as a result of those arrests," Peckham said. He said the peacekeeping force had not been informed about the propaganda pamphlets.

Maj. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for the 10th Mountain Division at Bagram, said American forces consider the pamphlets "credible threats," and said troops and journalists are being warned to watch out for rocket, mortar and car bomb attacks.

The latest reported attack on coalition forces came Wednesday, when a group of U.S. Special Forces and Afghan troops said five rockets landed several miles away from them in the Shah-e-Kot Valley. The allied forces said they believed it was a poorly aimed attack directed at them.

In other developments Friday:

A Norwegian mine clearer was badly injured Friday when an anti-personnel mine exploded as he was trying to clear an area south of Bagram's airfield, U.S. and Norwegian officials said. Torbjoern Saeterboe, 30, was treated at a base hospital, then flown to Germany in serious but stable condition for further treatment, said Army spokeswoman Maj. Leanne Smuller.

The European Union said it would provide $25 million to bolster Afghan efforts to fight the cultivation of opium poppies.

Karzai, visiting Turkey, renewed a request for the expansion of the international force in Afghanistan beyond Kabul despite opposition from the Turkish government, which is expected to take over leadership of the peacekeepers. The United States and other force members also oppose the force's expansion.

The American-born man captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan will be held at a military jail in Virginia while officials decide his legal status. As the Justice Department worked to sort out questions about 22-year-old Yasser Esam Hamdi, whose parents are Saudi, the military flew him Friday from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Navy base in Virginia.