AFGHANISTAN - Jan. 2 - US Raid Killed Intelligence Chief.

Deputy Intelligence Minister Abdullah Tawheedi says: "Qari Ahmedullah [40-year-old Taliban intelligence chief] has been killed by US bombs in Zadran district of Khost Province" on Dec. 27. (Qari Ahmedullah is believed to be the highest-ranking Taliban official to have died in the US-led anti-terror campaign. He was among 25 people killed in the US bombing of the house where he was staying). Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said he could not confirm the death of Qari Ahmedullah, adding: "We just don't have the evidence". But a US intelligence official separately told The Associated Press that Ahmedullah was dead. Pentagon spokesman Admiral Stufflebeem confirms that talks are under way between anti-Taliban forces reporting to Hamid Karzai and Taliban forces, numbering perhaps 1,500, "that are looking to negotiate themselves out of a predicament".

Another Pentagon spokesman Victoria Clarke says if Mullah Omar does surrender to Afghan forces, the US expects him to be turned over. Interim FM Abdullah Abdullah says on ABC television: "I think Mullah Omar is still hiding somewhere in Afghanistan. His whereabouts is not known, neither to us nor to the coalition, I gather. But sooner or later he will be captured". In another development, a 12-nation reconnaissance team begins inspecting Kabul as British troops prepare a base for an international security force. By agreement with the interim government, the international force will grow to 4,500 troops in coming weeks and will begin patrolling by mid-January. Delegates from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Romania meet British troops at the force's headquarters in a dilapidated former sports club in central Kabul. Col. Richard Barrens, chief of staff at headquarters, says the delegates will spend two days in Kabul being briefed on the peacekeeping operation and inspecting the basing arrangements for their own troops. About 300 British troops, led by Gen. John McColl, are now occupying the base to prepare for the UN-mandated force that will support the interim government and seek to maintain order and stability.