Troops surround Mullah Omar

Afghan fighters and US forces have surrounded a village where Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is believed to have taken refuge despite unconfirmed reports that he has already been captured.

US forces are today making house-to-house searches for Mullah Omar around Baghran in southern Helmand province, a remote, mountainous region 100 miles north-west of Kandahar, Omar's powerbase until he abandoned it to local chieftains on 7 December. The moves comes despite Afghan minister for reconstruction, Amin Farhang, telling a German television programme last night: "I have heard that he was arrested but more I do not know."

However, a spokesman for Kandahar intelligence chief Haji Gullalai said: "I have no news about Mullah Omar's capture... we would know within half an hour if he is captured."

Afghan forces, meanwhile, took up positions at the frontline near Baghran, as local leaders considered demands to hand over both Mullah Omar and their weapons.

Mr Gullalai's spokesman said: "Our people are at the forefront and the US forces are in the rear. They don't want to be at the front because of security and also because they don't want to suffer casualties."

Earlier this week the intelligence chief said his envoys to local leaders in Baghran had returned and he was awaiting an answer from the chieftains on demands for Mullah Omar's handover.

Mullah Omar, 42, who lost one eye fighting the Soviets during their 1979-89 occupation of Afghanistan, was thought to have fled to Baghran with as many as 1,500 fighters. He is believed to command widespread loyalty in the southern ethnic Pashtun areas of Afghanistan. It is also believed he may still be in contact with Osama bin Laden.

A suspected Taliban leadership compound was bombed by American planes yesterday after reports of a sighting of Bin Laden.

Bombers and strike aircraft attacked the complex, in the Khost region of Afghanistan. The heavy and prolonged strikes ended with survivors being picked off by an AC130 gunship.

Special forces are today preparing to examine the remains of the complex, which was the same one targeted in August 1998 by Cruise missiles in the wake of the al Qaeda bombings of America's embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden escaped death by just hours in 1998 and today Pentagon officials said they are certain the strikes yesterday had killed al Qaeda leaders.

Special forces dispatched to inspect the site will look for signs of who the dead men are - and whether they may include Bin Laden.

Pentagon officials said the attack was "ferocious?, involving four B1 bombers and four Navy FA18 strike aircraft dropping as many as 100 2,000lb bombs.

A drone unmanned spy plane had spotted a convoy at the complex with the kind of security which usually surrounds Bin Laden. Although the plane's cameras did not see Bin Laden, other intelligence reports put him at the scene.

The bombing was the first time US air power had been used since the new year and came after days of patrols over Afghan skies.

American defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the use of bombers was now an option of last resort in Afghanistan. He said: "If you look at amount of bombing we have been doing in the last week or so, it is obvious that is not our first choice."

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