Al-Qaida Fighter Commits Suicide

The escape attempt underscored the difficulty of capturing hard-core members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. It came as Afghan officials considered a reported surrender offer from several top Taliban figures, including their former defense and justice ministers.

There were conflicting reports on the status of the negotiations. Commander Sadozai, a high-ranking security official in Kandahar, said Gov. Gul Agha and others were meeting late Tuesday to decide how to handle former Taliban officials if they give themselves up.

By other accounts, officials of the interim government already have granted ex-Taliban ministers a general amnesty, allowing them to go free unless they are accused of a specific crime. In Kabul, Intelligence Ministry officials and U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said Tuesday night they could not confirm anyone had surrendered.

At the Pentagon, Gen. Richard Myers said U.S. officials were checking into the reported surrender offer. "Obviously individuals of that stature in the Taliban leadership are of great interest to the United States, and we would expect them to be turned over," said Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The U.S. military targeted pockets of Taliban and al-Qaida resistance Tuesday as commanders shifted their focus from an all-out search for bin Laden to punishing air and ground attacks against the remnants of those who supported him.

Myers said U.S. forces operating in the Khost region of eastern Afghanistan had captured two senior al-Qaida figures. The two, whom Myers did not identify, were taken to the Marine base at Kandahar airport for interrogation, along with cell phones and laptops found with them. They were captured along with 12 other al-Qaida fighters, who were handed over to the Afghan government.

U.S. warplanes launched new strikes against a huge cave complex near the place where the al-Qaida members were captured. "We have found this complex to be very, very extensive. It covers a large area," Myers said.

In the southern city of Kandahar, a group of al-Qaida fighters, some injured in earlier fighting, have been sequestered in a ward with smuggled-in weapons refusing to submit to the city's new rulers. They have said they will blow themselves up if anyone tries to remove them.

One fighter, identified by hospital guards as Mohammad Rasool, jumped from a second-story window at Mir Wais Hospital early Tuesday but was quickly surrounded by soldiers, said Mohammed Shafiq, a local commander.

"He stopped, looked around, saw that he was surrounded and took a grenade and blew himself up," Shafiq said.

Six other al-Qaida men remain inside, Shafiq said. They have taken over four or five rooms of one ward, and medical staff have expressed fears of violence if any attempt is made to capture or disarm them. The entire area has been cordoned off.

"We are worried especially if they see a foreigner," Shafiq said. "They will start firing. There will be a big fight. They hate foreigners."

The weekslong search through Tora Bora, another major complex in eastern Afghanistan from which al-Qaida fighters were driven last month, will wrap up in the next day or so, Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. war effort, said Monday.

There was so far no clue about bin Laden's whereabouts from the search. But Franks said that in the next few days, the U.S. military would gain custody of one or two Taliban or al-Qaida figures of great interest to the United States. He would not elaborate. U.S. Marines have been scouring the tunnels and rubble of Tora Bora in search of traces of bin Laden.

Pakistan has said its troops arrested 23 foreign fighters trying to cross from Afghanistan over the weekend. At least 350 al-Qaida members, including more then 300 Arab nationals, have been arrested in Pakistan after crossing the border.