Taliban strengthens defense

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia said Sunday that it was strengthening its defenses, suggesting it was steeling for a U.S. military strike to punish it for harboring terror suspect Osama bin Laden. \n"We have fortified our bunkers and our important installations, including military bases and airfields," said the Taliban information minister, Qadratullah Jamal. Border officials in neighboring Pakistan said the Taliban were stepping up their military presence on the frontier. \nThe talk of a buildup came a day after the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, which is one of only three countries to recognize Taliban rule, threatened military action against any nation aiding an American attack on Afghanistan. \nThe ambassador, Abdul Salam Zaeef, did not name any country. But Pakistani military and diplomatic officials said Saturday that Pakistan has agreed to a list of U.S. demands for a possible attack on Afghanistan, including allowing a multinational force to be based there. \nAs it prepares to respond to Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States has focused on Afghanistan because the Taliban provide safe haven to bin Laden, the prime suspect. \nThe Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, urged Afghans to pray and read the Quran to help them through this "test," according to the Taliban's Radio Shariat. \nOmar met with senior clerics and received their support Sunday, the report said. The Taliban have refused to hand over bin Laden, saying Washington has given no proof of his involvement in any terrorist activity. \nAid agencies pulled their last workers out of the capital, Kabul, Sunday after the Taliban ordered them to leave. The Taliban said they could not guarantee their safety in the event of a U.S. assault. \nThe only foreign aid workers left were eight members of a Christian aid group jailed by the Taliban on charges of preaching Christianity, two American women, two Australians and four Germans. A Supreme Court official who spoke on condition of anonymity said their trial would continue even though a Pakistani defense lawyer has not arrived in Kabul. \nThe International Red Cross, which rarely withdraws from a war-torn nation, pulled out 15 foreign aid workers, the only staffers it had left in Afghanistan. One German and two Italians also left Kabul. \nThe Taliban order said all "foreigners" should evacuate Afghanistan, but it was not believed to apply to an estimated 6,000 Islamic extremists who come from other countries. There are believed to be 3,500 Arab militants in Afghanistan, as well as several thousand Pakistanis, Uzbeks and Chechens. Taliban leaders refused to comment. \nBuses headed east from Kabul toward Pakistan were crammed with Afghans fleeing the city of 1 million on Sunday. \n"We don't know whether we should run or hide," said Morad Ali, a civil servant in Kabul. \nIn Pakistan, officials in the North West Frontier Province along the Afghan border issued an order prohibiting Afghans without valid travel documents from entering the country.