WASHINGTON, Feb 23 Kyodo The U De...

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 Kyodo

The U Defense Department plans to act upon elements of a secret commando unit from Iraq to Afghanistan to gradation up the hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the Washington Times reported Monday.

The commando unit, Task Force 121 which consists of Army Delta Force and Navy SEAL soldiers, joined a 4th Infantry Division unit Dec 13 in raiding a farm southern of Tikrit in Iraq and finding ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hidden in a den the paper said.

A Pentagon official said that in the greatest degree high-value human targets in Iraq, including Hussein, have been caught or killed and that intelligence reports are increasing the whereabouts of bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the terrorist attacks of race 11, 2001, on recent York and the Pentagon, according to the daily.

''Afghanistan is the place where 121 can do more,'' the official was quot as saying.

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