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| Terror Networks |
| Bin Laden: worldâs biggest manhunt heats up again |
| 2006-01-20 |
| ISLAMABAD - A new audiotape from Osama bin Laden and a recent airstrike targeting his deputy have dramatically swung the spotlight back on the impossibly remote region where they are thought to be hiding. Since the early days of the âwar on terrorâ, officials have regarded the barren, ochre mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan as the most likely refuge for the Al Qaeda chief and his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri. With the worldâs attention focused on Iraq for much of the last three years, the wild region was somewhat forgotten along with the ongoing troubles in Afghanistan - until now. Four Al Qaeda militants are said to have been killed in a raid by a CIA Predator drone on the remote Pakistani tribal agency of Bajur, reportedly including Zawahiriâs son-in-law and a bomber on the USâs most wanted list. Officials said Zawahiri stayed away but the likelihood that such a cabal was in the same area four years after the September 11 attacks suggests that Washington is still on the right track, analysts said. The release of bin Ladenâs first recording in over a year may be an attempt by Al Qaeda to demonstrate that it has not been weakened by the attack, said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a Pakistan-based expert on Afghan affairs. âThe timing of the tape seems to be linked with the Bajur incident,â Yousafzai told AFP. âThey were waiting for a proper time. Bin Laden wanted to tell Americans that not only Zawahiri but he was also alive.â Many officials believe bin Laden was trapped late in 2001 by the ferocious US bombing of the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan following the fall of his backers, Afghanistanâs extremist Islamic Taleban regime. But he is thought to have slipped out of the region, most likely across the porous border with Pakistan just a few miles away. Since then bin Laden and his acolytes have relied on support from the tribesmen in Pakistanâs semi-autonomous border regions -- who so far have not been tempted by the 25-million-dollar US reward on the Saudiâs head. Intelligence agencies scrutinised the handful of video and audio tapes he released during that time for clues to his whereabouts, until they dried up last year and were replaced by recordings by Zawahiri. Pakistan deployed around 70,000 troops in the tribal areas on its side of the border, while the 20,000-strong US-led military in Afghanistan pursued the hunt across the border. In 2004 Pakistan launched an offensive in the border region of South Waziristan, killing hundreds of foreign militants and their local backers and losing around 250 troops. Last year it targeted North Waziristan. President Pervez Musharraf said last September that that Pakistani authorities had in 2003 âhad some identification of a rough area where he (bin Laden) was, through technical means. But then we lost himâ. The hunt has appeared to step up in recent months. US counter-terrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton said on Tuesday that bin Laden was believed to be alive somewhere in the boder region despite his silence. A US counter-terrorism official told AFP in September 2005 that elite US Delta Force and Navy SEAL units were returning back to Afghanistan after tours of duty in Iraq. US agents based in Afghanistan had also made reconnaissance raids into South and North Waziristan, and all the way into Bajur and the northern areas, the official said. Four months later the US made its most spectacular cross-border incursion yet with its airstrike on Damadola village in Bajur. âIf they are present in this area of the airstrike they would be nervous,â Yousfzai said of bin Ladenâs men. âThey would be concerned that action had started in Bajur after South and North Waziristan. They must have moved to some other area.â Pakistan lodged a formal protest to the US after 18 civilians were reportedly killed in the Bajur airstrike, highlighting the continual danger that Washingtonâs âwar on terrorâ might alienate its closest allies while bin Laden is still on the run. |
| Posted by:Steve |