Bin Laden Unit Said to Be Aiding Taliban

Bombing in Afghanistan slackened for the Muslim day of prayer Friday but resumed today, and a Pentagon official said Osama bin Laden has been fortifying front-line Taliban forces with members of an elite guard known as Brigade 55.

These troops, reported to number up to several thousand, are better trained and equipped, better paid and more highly motivated than most Taliban fighters. The Taliban force includes conscripts and guerrillas whose first loyalty may be to regional warlords, the official said.

At a time when Taliban defections are reported to be on the rise, Brigade 55 fighters are being mixed in among other units to enforce discipline, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official also said that amid worries about mysterious cases of anthrax infections in the United States, U.S. officials believe that Bin Laden has rudimentary capability in chemical and biological weapons that may include the anthrax toxin.

At a minimum, the official said, Bin Laden possesses chlorine, phosgene and other poisonous gases that he could, with some difficulty, use as weapons.

Several bombing strikes were reported in the predawn hours Friday, but the skies over Afghanistan later fell silent.

“Military operations continue,” Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon briefing. “But we are not doing any pre-planned operations today, as Friday is the Muslim holy day.”

Officials said they did not want the Taliban or Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network to exploit the brief slackening of bombing, and they signaled that the slowdown would not continue today.

In Afghanistan, wire services reported loud explosions in Kabul, the capital, near dawn today. Pentagon officials provided no details about the new bombing.

A Sign of Taliban’s Reliance on Bin Laden

The reported use of Brigade 55 troops is a clear sign of the Taliban regime’s dependence on Bin Laden.

Although the Al Qaeda ranks are far smaller in number than the Taliban’s forces, Bin Laden reportedly has provided the Afghan regime with tens of millions of dollars and has great influence on how it conducts its affairs.

In recent days, news reports from neighboring countries have contended that some Al Qaeda fighters were on the move in Afghanistan to shore up the Taliban’s defenses and protect some of the regime’s most valuable assets.

Some Brigade 55 troops, according to these reports, have been sent to Kandahar, which is a key stronghold of the fundamentalist regime and one of the cities hardest hit by the U.S. bombardment.

Western experts have differed on how important the crack brigade might be. The defense official’s comments Friday indicated that the Pentagon clearly believes that Brigade 55 has a central role in Bin Laden’s organization and in efforts to strengthen the Taliban’s resistance to the U.S. attack.

As such, the unit may also be a prime target for U.S. warplanes and special operations teams, just as U.S. forces went after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Like the entire Bin Laden’s organization, Brigade 55 is made up primarily of outsiders who have come to Afghanistan to join his movement. Many are Saudis or Egyptians, and many distrust Afghans--an attitude that is often returned, officials say.

‘Arab Afghans’ See Locals as Backward

While these “Arab Afghans” often view the locals as backward and of dubious loyalty, Afghans are said to view them as arrogant and overly aggressive.

For instance, some Afghans have charged that Brigade 55 members have been too willing to inflict civilian casualties and to destroy the homes and businesses of noncombatants.

Although the organization is called a brigade, it is not like conventional infantry brigades, which are supported by other units, such as artillery and armored vehicle units. Brigade 55 appears to be equipped much like a light infantry force, relying mostly on small arms.

With the first full week of bombing nearing an end, U.S. officials have suggested that they expect the air campaign to be less intense on some days, as was the case Friday. At the same time, they insisted that there would be no bombing pause that the Taliban or Al Qaeda could exploit to strengthen their position.

Officials said that on Thursday, the U.S. operation used about 15 Navy fighter-bombers from carriers and about 10 land-based bombers, roughly the same as the day before.

Many Targets Remain, U.S. Officials Say

While claiming that they had done wide damage, senior officials also said that many targets remain to be hit, a sign that bombing will continue in the days ahead.

“We have weakened the Taliban military and damaged--but certainly have not eliminated--their air defense capabilities,” Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said at Friday’s Pentagon briefing. “And we have worked over a number, if not all, of their terrorist training camps.”

The Taliban still has some fighters, transport planes and helicopters, he said.

Pentagon officials said that the humanitarian airdrop of food for Afghanistan had been called off Thursday because the C-17 cargo plane flights had conflicted with plans for commercial flights between Germany and Uzbekistan.