Bush unveils ‘most wanted terrorist’ list

Bush speaking at the FBI headquarters in Washington joined by attorney general John Ashcroft Keystone

President George W Bush has unveiled pictures of the 22 "most wanted terrorists" and has offered rewards of up to $ 5 million for useful information.

Speaking at the FBI headquarters in Washington, Bush promised to punish those 22 suspects named on the list.

“These 22 individuals do not account for all of the terrorist activity in the world, but they are among the most dangerous….They must be found. They will be stopped and they will be punished,” he said.

His comments came while the bombing of Afghanistan moved into its fourth night with anti-aircraft fire erupting again around the capital city of Kabul.

Several loud explosions were heard near the airport north of the city and in the west in the direction of Rishkore and Kargah, where Osama bin Laden, the main suspect behind the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, is believed to have terrorist training camps.

Afghanistan seeks help

Meanwhile, the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has called for the world’s Muslim societies to assist Afghanistan in their fight against the US.

“Muslims should dissociate from it. Every Muslim, having a strong faith, should resolutely act against the egoistic power,” he told the BBC’s Pashto language service.

This was the first time the spiritual leader of the Taliban spoke out since the US started their strikes against Afghanistan on Sunday night.

Omar’s house in Kandahar was among the initital targets of the attacks, but according to officials he was not there at the time.

Taliban air defences hit

Pentagon officials said the Taliban’s air defences had largely been wiped out. “Essentially we have air supremacy over Afghanistan now,” air force general Richard Myers said at a joint news conference with US defence secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

However, the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, denied this by saying “the claim that they [the US] have destroyed the defence capability of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is not true.”

He also said that as long as the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan continued, America would not be safe.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reports that the Taliban have charged a detained French reporter and his two Pakistani guides with spying.

“They have been formally charged with spying,” said Taliban intelligence chief Mullah Taj Meer, according to AIP. “We had warned all journalists that whosoever entered Afghanistan illegally would be treated as US soldier,” he added.

Michel Peyrard, a reporter for the French weekly Paris Match, was detained along with two Pakistani guides on Tuesday near the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

Fear of anthrax attacks

The US state department has advised all US embassies abroad to stock up on the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, in case of anthrax attacks, according to spokesman Richard Boucher.

The instructions went out on Tuesday, four days after a man died of the rare disease in florida. A second man who works in the same building was found to have been exposed to anthrax.

swissinfo with agencies