| It's WaPo and moderately EFL, though it does give a little more info from US sources. |
Pakistani security forces backed by U.S. spy planes were engaged in a pitched battle with tribal fighters and Islamic militants who were believed to be protecting key members of al Qaeda, senior Pakistani and U.S. officials said yesterday. "There are indications someone important" has been surrounded by the Pakistani troops, said a senior U.S. counterterrorism official. U.S. and Pakistani officials said they could not confirm reports circulating in Pakistan that commanders had evidence the cornered militants included Osama bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman Zawahiri.
Hundreds of Pakistani troops backed by artillery and helicopter gunships were on the attack around the villages of Azam Warsak, Kaloosha and Shin Warsak in remote southern Waziristan province, officials said. Witnesses in Azam Warsak described artillery barrages and intense crossfire. Supporting the U.S. and Pakistani troops is a newly refined technology that allows for the quick processing and analysis of images and communications intercepts from U.S. Air Force spy planes, CIA drones and National Security Agency satellites. New techniques allow for speedy transfer of the information to commanders in the field, said counterterrorism officials. The springtime operation, called Mountain Storm, has also focused on capturing people suspected of having knowledge of bin Laden's support system -- a technique that paid off in the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Captives are being questioned by CIA and military interrogators with the aim of identifying and apprehending individuals with direct knowledge and access to bin Laden and Zawahiri.
Military officials and others have expressed optimism that they are closer to bin Laden than they have ever been. "Operations are underway and the difference between coming up empty-handed and having [bin Laden] and Zawahiri are quite thin," said J. Cofer Black, director of counterterrorism at the State Department. "It's not a linear problem; it's more like a net," said Black, who headed the CIA's counterterrorism center until last year. "The net is wider and longer, and the mesh is finer, and we're moving at a higher rate of speed." Officials said local commanders believe they may have surrounded a key figure because of the intensity of the resistance from tribal fighters and Islamic militants, whose usual tactic is to fade away when confronted with significant force. "We have no reports whatsoever to claim that Osama or Ayman al-Zawahiri have been trapped," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief military spokesman, said late Thursday. One tribal elder reached in Azam Warsak said some of the fighters were residents who could not leave the area when combat began. "Those who have been trapped are longtime Uzbek, Tajik and Chechen residents of the area," said Malik Behram Khan. "No way to go, they have no other choice but to fight."
| Aren't the Chechens a bit far from home, though? And all of the assault weapons and explosives a bit much, even in Pakland? |
A senior Pakistani army officer in Peshawar described the fighters as "trained combatants." He said there were "solid reports" that Zawahiri was in the area about three months ago. "We are not sure if he was still hanging out there." On Thursday, the House of Representatives doubled the reward for bin Laden's capture, to $50 million. |