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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| 48 operations launched in Waziristan |
| 2005-03-26 |
| Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Safdar Hussain has said 48 military operations have been carried out in the length and breadth of South Waziristan Agency and that the possibility of Osama Bin Laden being in one of the target areas cannot be ruled out, The Christian Science Monitor reported on Friday. "Last year, thousands of military and paramilitary troops battled Al Qaeda militants and tribal supporters in South Waziristan Agency. The 48 military operations resulted in more than 500 deaths, including 304 foreign and local militants and around 200 troops," it reported. "After three years of poking around caves, raiding compounds and getting the slip from motorbike mullas, the intelligence communities chasing Osama finally seem to know what they're on the lookout for," it added. "To find the world's most wanted man, Pakistani forces are trying to spot signs of his elaborate security," it reported. The paper quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying that Osama was guarded by some 50 men, divided into concentric circles of security. "Despite President Pervez Musharraf's recent statement that Osama's trail had gone cold, the hunt goes on," it added. It quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying that he (the corps commander) was desperately looking for the signature of Osama's security; because it was then he could declare victory. "Finding the signature means either I will get hold of him or I will kill him," Lt Gen Hussain told the Monitor. There was a ring of very close guards, there was an outer guard and then there was an inner guard, and also several circles, the Monitor quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying. It quoted Lt Gen Hussain as saying that Osama's group moved in caravans and dressed in women's clothing to avoid detection by satellite. "Now I have also given orders that when every vehicle is checked, the women are asked to say something," he told the Monitor. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |