Special forces move in

British and American special forces were today operating in Afghanistan after a week in which the full scale of the terrorism allegedly planned by Osama bin Laden was revealed.

The confirmation last night that units, likely to include the SAS, were deployed in Afghanistan increases pressure on the Taliban, which has allowed bin Laden to stay in its territory and repeatedly refused to hand him over.

And it comes after the suspected terrorist mastermind’s suspected plots to assassinate world leaders at the G8 summit in Genoa and use crop-dusting planes to spray poisons in America were revealed.

But in New York, attention was still focused on the pile of debris that is the remains of the World Trade Centre, where hope evaporated that the 5,963 still missing would be found as more than two weeks passed since the attacks of September 11.

In the city, the first death certificates were applied for by people whose loved ones were officially missing after the mayor had the painful task of saying many bodies would never be found.

And the length of time which the recovery effort will take extended to up to a year, with the full extent of the damage being slowly revealed at what is officially known as Ground Zero.

The search in the rubble for life has turned to one for body parts and clues to the last minutes of the airliners which were hijacked after leaving Boston Logan Airport.

Last night, one vital clue was revealed, in a chilling five-page document found in three different locations which gives a step-by-step guide to their last hours to the hijackers.

‘‘Crave death’’ and ‘‘make sure no one is following you’’ it said, and added they should smile at taxi drivers.

‘‘Everybody hates death, fears death,’’ it said.

‘‘But only those, the believers who know the life after death and the reward after death, would be the ones who will be seeking death.’’

As they set foot on the plane, the hijackers were to pray and remember: ‘‘It is a raid for Allah.’’

The text, found in the luggage of suspected ringleader Mohamed Atta, a car hired by another hijackers and in the wreckage of the plane which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, is the first positive link between the 19 men and comes as part of the biggest investigation in criminal history.

More than 400 people have been detained in America for questioning, and in London, an Algerian faces extradition to the United States.

Pilot Lotfi Raissi was an instructor for four of the hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks on the US, Bow Street Magistrates Court was told by prosecutor Arvinda Sambir during a preliminary extradition hearing.

The focus of the investigation has moved beyond America to include Britain, Spain and France, with investigators saying the plot was hatched in England, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

Six Algerians have been arrested in Spain and other arrests made in Germany and France, while other plots of terrorists linked to bin Laden also emerged.

Among the plans were an assassination attempt aimed at Prime Minister Tony Blair, American president George W Bush and other world leaders at the G8 summit in Genoa in July.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini said: ‘‘Many people joked about the Italian Intelligence Force. But actually they had information that in Genoa there was the hypothesis of an attack on the American president with the use of an aeroplane.

‘‘That is why we closed the airspace above Genoa and installed anti-aircraft missiles.’’

And it was also revealed that bin Laden’s Al Quaida terror network planned attacks on Nato headquarters in Belgium and the European Parliament in Brussels.

The plot to target the buildings, as well as the America embassy in Paris and the country’s consulate in Marseilles, was foiled by the arrest, before September 11, of a key part of the terror cell planning the attacks.

Twenty people are still being sought after the arrest of 30 of the cell’s members, which included some in Britain as well as France, Spain and the Netherlands.

Another plan was a daring bid to free the blind sheikh jailed for masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman who was jailed for life for his part in the first attack on the twin towers, which killed seven but failed to destroy the buildings.

A former fighter in the Al Quaida organisation revealed bin Laden has plotted to kidnap a high-ranking American official such as an ambassador and hold him as a hostage until America releases the terrorist sheikh.

But the most chilling plan of all was the claim that in America Atta had attempted to buy a crop-dusting plane using a government loan.

The plane could have been used to spray poisonous chemicals or even biological agents from the air, some of them virtually undetectable for days.

Police in the United States were warned to be on the alert for chemicals being stolen and crop-duster planes were banned from the air for almost two days.

The plans emerged along with claims bin Laden may have tried to gain chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons.

Intelligence sources said there was no hard evidence that bin Laden or his followers have actually produced chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, but contact had been made with the Russian Mafia to obtain materials and components and he may have a secret laboratory to develop the weapons.

American efforts to find the prime suspect have been stepped up, with the Bush administration attempting to cut off his cash.

Mr Bush ordered the freezing of all the assets he had in America - and told foreign banks who deal with his organisation to freeze those accounts or they will be forced to stop doing business in America.

But a defiant bin Laden was reported to have told Pakistani newspaper Ummat:

‘‘By the grace of god, Al Quaida has three different alternative financial networks.

‘‘It is being run around the world by well-educated young people. We do not have a few hundred or a few thousand but hundreds and thousands of highly educated young people, who are well aware of all these things and know the alternatives.’’

The message was the latest from bin Laden, who also tried to blame Jews for the attacks and told the newspaper: ‘‘The attackers could be anybody, people who are part of the American system yet rebel against it, or some group that wants to make this century a century of confrontation between Islam and Christianity.’’

He has also been backed repeatedly this week by the Taliban, which has rebuffed two Pakistani missions asking for his handover, despite the threat of military action and the likelihood of a humanitarian disaster whose seeds are already being sown.

Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar told the Pakistani delegation that America must give up its stubbornness, and then Afghanistan could negotiate.

Even while describing the talks as ‘‘fruitful’’, the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, who accompanied the Pakistani delegation, said the subject of bin Laden had been out of bounds.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban envoy, insisted the purpose of the talks are ‘‘not to discuss Osama bin Laden, but to discuss the crisis’’.

But Mr Bush has repeatedly told the Taliban a simple message: ‘‘There will be no negotiation.’’

And he has backed the words with action, with a huge air armada mobilised and largely in place in the Persian Gulf, three aircraft carrier-led battlegroups on their way to the Indian Ocean, and the deployment of special forces to Afghanistan.

The elite Green Berets and Rangers are said to be working with the SAS, who have detailed knowledge of the terrain and people of the country.

Today they were the first sign that Mr Bush’s words of war are becoming reality.