Saddam capture turns hunt back to Osama

The capture of Saddam Hussein could make it easier to catch the world’s other top fugitive – al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden – and dampen support for the growing insurgency in Afghanistan, allied officials in Kabul claimed.

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the mountainous no man’s land between Pakistan and Afghanistan, possibly feeding off the support of deeply conservative tribal villagers who share his hardline vision of Islam.

That support, and the mountainous conditions, have helped him elude one of the largest dragnets in history.

The one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Omar is also on the run, as is Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who has joined the battle against US troops and the Afghan government.

Saddam’s capture “is obviously good news for the people of Iraq who suffered for so long under Saddam’s tyrannical regime and it is a warning to all the other outlaws who are at large like bin Laden, Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,” Omar Samad, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry said.

US military spokesman Lt Col Bryan Hilferty insisted the arrest would be a help.

“The fate of Saddam Hussein will increase the human intelligence the people here are already giving us as they help in the fight against the enemies of Afghanistan,” he said at Bagram Air Base, US military headquarters.

On the streets of Kabul, there was a more ominous message from many ordinary Afghans.

“It’s a black day,” said Mohammed Sharif, a 20-year-old student from Kabul University. “Saddam was a great holy warrior in the Islamic world and a supporter of Islam.”

Even some of Afghanistan’s new Western-trained police said they were saddened to hear of the capture, despite the scenes of jubilant Iraqis celebrating Saddam’s downfall.

“I don’t want any Muslim to be captured by infidels,” said Zulfiqar Jalali, a 27-year-old officer standing outside a police station on a traffic-congested Kabul street.

“Saddam is an Iraqi and has the right to live freely in his country.”