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US readies to hunt bin Laden in Pak

The United States could soon be staging raids into Pakistan to track down Osama bin Laden and his key allies, as the focus of the campaign against terrorism begins to move beyond Afghanistan, a senior US military official said.

General Tommy Franks, commander of the military operation in Afghanistan, said that the Pakistan government has given necessary permission to US troops to cross the border as part of the hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists and fleeing Taliban fighters.

Intelligence reports are understood to have confirmed that bin Laden escaped into Pakistan following the bombardment of his Tora Bora cave complex.

US intelligence also believes that the Taliban's supreme commander, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has fled to the mountains of southern Afghanistan with an estimated 3.5 million pounds withdrawn from a Kandhahar bank and stuffed into flour sacks.

Deputy Manager of the bank Abdul Qadez said that Omar claimed he was taking the money to pay civil servants directly from his home. "We knew this wasn't true. He took the money and left," Qadez says.

Omar and his bodyguards are believed to be travelling on motorbikes or donkeys. Heavy bags of cash, guns, ammunition, water and food will weigh down the convey and make it vulnerable to SAS and US special forces, intelligence reports quoted in sections of the US media say.

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