Military

DATE=09/11/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-280366

TITLE=AFGHAN/U-N/EVACUATION (S)

BYLINE=AYAZ GUL

DATELINE=ISLAMABAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Foreigners working for the United Nations and other aid agencies

are leaving Afghanistan, where the prime suspect of Tuesday's terrorist

attacks on U-S buildings -- Osama bin Laden -- lives as a "guest" of the ruling

Taleban movement. From Islamabad, Pakistan, Ayaz Gul reports.

TEXT: A special U-N flight carried some aid workers out of the Afghan

capital, Kabul, in the middle of the day. A U-N statement says the

organization is temporarily relocating foreign staff from Afghanistan

because of what it calls "circumstances prevailing internationally."

Anti-Taleban forces bombed the vicinity of Kabul airport hours after the

horrific attacks in New York and Washington, setting an ammunition dump

on fire and destroying two civilian planes at the airport. But

the runway appears to be functional, as the U-N evacuation plans are under

way.

Reports say a high-level U-S military official was due in Pakistan for talks on the regional situation, but canceled the visit.

The developments have aroused fears that the United States is about to

launch retaliatory strikes against Osama bin Laden and his Taleban hosts

in Afghanistan, as it did within days of the terrorist attacks on two U-S

embassies in Africa in 1998. (SIGNED)

NEB/AG/WD