Pakistanis May Be Near al-Qaida’s No. 2
Pakistanis May Be Near al-Qaida’s No. 2
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani forces believe they have cornered and perhaps wounded Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, in a battle near the Afghan border, three senior Pakistani officials said Thursday, the first major break in the world’s most intense manhunt in more than a year.
Hundreds of troops and paramilitary rangers pounded several fortress-like mud-brick compounds with artillery and fired on them from helicopter gunships, as entrenched suspects fought back hard in the mountainous region. An intelligence official said “dozens” were killed Thursday.
The officials told The Associated Press that intelligence indicated the forces had surrounded the Egyptian-born al-Zawahri in an operation that began Tuesday in South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal belt long believed the most likely hiding place for the top two al-Qaida leaders.
There was no indication bin Laden was with al-Zawahri. However, the two have traveled together in the past, and bin Laden and al-Zawahri appeared jointly in video tapes released shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The United States has offered a $25 million reward for information leading to al-Zawahri’s capture. On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives doubled the reward for bin Laden’s capture to $50 million.
“We have been receiving intelligence and information from our agents who are working in the tribal areas that al-Zawahri could be among the people hiding there,” a Pakistani military official said. “All of our efforts are to capture him.”
An intelligence official and a senior politician in President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s government both confirmed the account. All spoke on condition of anonymity.
The intelligence official said information was also coming from some of the 18 suspects arrested during Thursday’s operation. Some said during interrogation that al-Zawahri was wounded in the raid, the official said. Officials said helicopter gunships and artillery would continue attacking at dawn Friday.
Musharraf told CNN that he’d spoken with the commander of Pakistani troops in the region. He said the commander reported “fierce resistance” from a group of fighters entrenched in fortress-like buildings, and that there were indications a senior figure was surrounded.
“He’s reasonably sure there’s a high-value target there,” Musharraf said. “They are not coming out in spite of the fact that we pounded them with artillery.”
The news came the same day as Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) announced in the capital, Islamabad, that Washington was bestowing the status of “major non-NATO (news - web sites) ally” on Pakistan, and praised the country for its help in the war on terror.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) told CNN she could not confirm the reports.
But, she said, if al-Zawahri were captured, “it would be of course a major step forward in the war on terrorism, because he’s obviously an extremely important figure. But I think we have to be careful not to assume that getting one al-Qaida leader is going to break up the organization.”
The 52-year-old former Egyptian surgeon is believed to be the brains behind the terror network, with bin Laden serving more as spiritual leader and financial backer.
Often seen by bin Laden’s side in videos released to Arab television networks, the doctor was also thought to serve as al-Qaida leader’s personal physician.
Al-Zawahri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad was believed behind the assassination of President Anwar Sadat during a Cairo military parade in 1981. He merged the organization with al-Qaida in 1998.
Al-Zawahri has continued to spread his message since the Sept. 11 attacks in audiotapes, the latest broadcast on Feb. 24, in which he taunted President Bush (news - web sites) and threatened more attacks on the United States. Another tape criticized France’s decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools.
Under pressure from Washington, Pakistan has arrested more than 500 al-Qaida suspects and has turned most over to the United States. The last major capture was that of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the former al-Qaida No. 3, who was nabbed on March 1, 2003, in a house near the capital and quickly delivered to U.S. custody. He is being held at an undisclosed location.
The Pakistani military has been pursuing 100 tribal leaders whom authorities want to roll into their efforts to hunt al-Qaida in the Waziristan frontier. So far, about two-thirds have said they would provide information and turn over any Islamic militants in their territories, American defense officials said.
The others face destruction of their homes by the Pakistani military, officials said.
There have been several anti-terror sweeps in the tribal regions in recent months, but none so bloody as the operation that began Tuesday. Pakistani troops have moved 70,000 troops into the border region, and Musharraf on Monday promised to rid the tribal areas of foreign terrorists.
At least 41 people — 15 soldiers and 26 suspected militants — were killed Tuesday in fighting in the area. The military said Thursday that most of those killed were foreigners, but it did not give their nationalities and acknowledged that only two bodies had been recovered. The two dead included a Chechen and someone of Middle Eastern origin, a military official said on condition of anonymity.
U.S. officials say they are watching to see if the Pakistani actions send militants back into Afghanistan (news - web sites), where U.S. troops operate freely. The U.S. military on Sunday announced the start of a new operation to track down senior al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives.
Afghan officials told AP they were closely monitoring the Pakistani operation.
“We are hopeful operations being carried out in border regions will yield some desirable results,” said Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad. “If a well known figure is part of these captures … the world will be a safer place.”
Thursday’s raid concentrated on three South Waziristan towns — Azam Warsak, Shin Warsak and Kaloosha. Early morning calls from mosques warned residents to leave the area, apparently to give the troops more room to operate.
Powell, who left the country hours before the news broke, also said he believed there was evidence that bin Laden is hiding in the rugged border area.
“No one has seen him, so how can one be sure?” Powell told Geo TV. "But he has certainly given evidence that he is alive and active. But we can’t be sure.
“And if he is alive and active, and the evidence suggests that he is, and if he is in the area of the Pakistan-Afghan border, that’s a very difficult area to find someone who doesn’t want to be found.”
Comment;
The line which mentions that Pakistan under pressure from the Americans is arresting and imprisoning muslims makes you think who is really controlling and running Pakistan? is it the Americans? Or is it Musharaff the self elected dictator of Pakistan? And what will happen if Musharaff told America to get lost and that he would run pakistan according to what is in the best interests of the muslims of this great nation? Would America accept this as an expression of a soveriegn state? Or would they say " No, it is we who control and dominate you and in reality you are not sovereign or free, but rather a subservient state whome we control"?
