Tribal leaders appeal for halt to US attacks

Afghan tribal leaders appealed today for an immediate end to US air attacks on their territory.

The half–dozen tribesmen, from the eastern Paktia province, said they also made the demand in a meeting on Wednesday with interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.

Mr Karzai promised to press the United States to stop the bombing of Paktia province, according to Abdul Hakim Munir, their spokesman and a former Taliban official.

He claimed there are no more al–Qa'ida members in Paktia province. But some within Afghanistan's new administration, US intelligence and former Taliban believe large pockets of al–Qa'ida loyalists are hiding in mountains, and the US military has vowed to pursue bin Laden until he is found.

A week ago, US bombs hit a convoy in the mountains of Paktia. The Pentagon says it received intelligence that the convoy was carrying al–Qa'ida members who fired at the high–altitude bombers.

Paktia tribesmen said the United States mistakenly hit a convoy of tribesmen heading to Kabul to congratulate Afghanistan's new interim administration. They said Mr Karzai's brother had been notified of the convoy's plans to travel to Kabul.

They even said someone – although it was unclear who – had contacted US officials in Kabul to notify them about the trip.

At a news conference today, Haji Saifullah, a wizened, gray–bearded elder of the Paktia shura, or council, said as many as 65 people were killed – 15 men in the convoy and the rest in nearby mountain villages.

"There were no al–Qa'ida members among them. They were all tribal elders," he said. They were traveling a secondary road through the mountains because the main road to Kabul had been blocked by rival tribesmen, he explained.

Mr Saifullah asserted that enemy tribesmen had falsely identified the vehicles as an al–Qa'ida convoy to the United States so that it would be bombed and their enemies killed.

"This is tribal hostility," he said, "not al–Qa'ida members."

On Wednesday, interim Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah said "we believe there are still some pockets of al–Qaida" in Afghanistan. He singled out Paktia province and southern Afghanistan and said Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar may be there as well.

"He's hiding somewhere," Abdullah said.

The Taliban's former intelligence chief in Kandahar and deputy interior minister, Mullah Mohammed Khaqzar, told The Associated Press that he was almost certain al–Qa'ida members or their families were still in mountain hide–outs in Paktia province.