THE scenes of jubilation which greeted Saddam Hussein's capture yesterday were tempered by the knowledge that Osama bin Laden is still at large and may be plotting new terrorist attacks.
Afghan officials hailed the arrest, saying it could dampen support for a burgeoning insurgency in Afghanistan, and might even make it easier to catch bin Laden.
The whereabouts of the man accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on the United States are not known, but officials have said he is believed to be hiding in the mountainous no-man's-land between Pakistan and Af-ghanistan, possibly feeding off the support of deeply conservative tribal villagers who share his hardline vision of Islam.
Omar Samad, a spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry, added: ''This 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, (Taliban chief) Mullah Omar and (renegade warlord) Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who hopefully sooner or later will be brought to justice.''
Ali Ahmad Jalali, interior minister, said of the reasons bin Laden has not yet been caught: ''It's totally different terrain, a different situation and a different social structure. In the tribal areas, control is very weak.''
Officials said yesterday's images of a captured Saddam, looking tired with a wild, unkempt beard, might give pause to potential militants thinking of taking on the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.
''A lot of what we see (here) is irrational and misguided,'' said German Lieutenant General Goetz Gliemeroth, the commander of a 5500-strong international peacekeeping force that patrols the Afghan capital. ''Whoever tends toward extremism might now think twice about it.''
Taliban rebels and their al Qaeda allies have been waging an ever-fiercer campaign against US troops, the Afghan government, and aid workers seeking to rebuild the country. Bloodshed in recent months has forced the United Nations to pull international staff out of huge swathes of the south-east.
Security officials have said in recent months they saw signs that rebels in Afghanistan were feeding off the tactics em-ployed in Iraq, targeting UN workers and others seen to be allied to the United States.
Talat Masood, a Pakistani military analyst who closely follows Afghanistan, said news of Saddam's capture would echo loudly through al Qaeda and the Taliban's mountain lairs.
''There is a psychological synergy between the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan, so if there is any setback in Iraq it will have a ripple effect in Afghanistan,'' he said.
''Bin Laden and his group will be on the defensive and demoralisation may set in.''
However, on the streets of Kabul, there was a much more
ominous message from many ordinary Afghans.
''Look at poor Saddam with his long beard,'' said Abdul Ali, 32, watching television footage of the capture in his shop.
Mohammed Sharif, a 20-year-old student from Kabul University: ''It's a black day. 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.''
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