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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Al Qaeda Fugitives May Have Fled Through Tunnel |
| 2004-03-22 |
| File this one under the "Duh" files. Top Al Qaeda terrorists may have escaped a siege by thousands of Pakistani soldiers through several secret tunnels leading from mud fortresses to a dry mountain stream near the border with Afghanistan, a security chief said Monday. The longest tunnel found so far was more than 1 mile long and led from the homes of two local men —Nek Mohammed and Sharif Khan — to a stream near the frontier, said Brig. Mahmood Shah, head of security for Pakistan?s tribal regions. "There is a possibility that the tunnel may have been used at the start of the operation," Shah told journalists in Peshawar (search), the provincial capital. He said the tunnels began at the homes in the village of Kaloosha and led in the direction of a mountain range that straddles the border. Typical SW Asia tribal op - bloody, noisy but not all that effective in terms of catching the honchos. |
| Posted by:OldSpook |
| #7 JFM, unfortunately we weren't in control of the situation, the Pakistanis were. As long as we rely on locals, be they Pakistanis or Afghan tribesman as at Tora Bora, we can expect a half-assed effort and result. |
| Posted by: Dakotah 2004-3-22 12:09:22 PM |
| #6 I think we should draw lessons from this incident. What happenned? Very simple Al Quaida built a tunnel but stopped at a couple yards from the surface so the thing is undetectable. When they are discovered the terrorists resist and then ask for ceasefire promising to surrender at dawn. In the meantime they dig they open the tunnel and the non-expendable guys escape. We should not allow ceasefires and from the start we should use what is needed (including armor, choppers and fixed wing aircraft) to wipe out the resistance in (few) hours instead of days. And of course some UAVs watching movement would be a boon. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-3-22 11:47:12 AM |
| #5 Sure is a great place for "shrubs with sniper rifles" to "wait for wiley wabbits" though... |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2004-3-22 11:34:35 AM |
| #4 A one mile tunnel is of little use if you are at the center of a 10 mile diameter cordon. Also a mile-long tunnel through rocky soil doesn't get built overnight. This location was carefully chosen as a base for AQ. The tunnel would have been used each time the government troops came to inspect. It is extremely important that we dislodged AQ from this town because the fallback HQ will not be as good. I'll bet that each one of these Islamic Prep Schools has some tunneling in progress. They definitely have the available manpower. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-3-22 10:50:39 AM |
| #3 Just another part of the fabulous A/Q cave system.... buy or rent the locals, find out how much they require and just do it. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-22 10:36:50 AM |
| #2 Sounds like a replay of Tora Bora. |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-3-22 9:52:14 AM |
| #1 secret tunnels leading from mud fortresses to a dry mountain stream Ah, thought it might be part of the old water system. Very common in this part of the world, some of them are hundreds of years old. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-3-22 9:20:19 AM |