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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Pakistan Adds Troops in al-Qaida Hunt |
| 2004-03-19 |
| Thousands of Pakistani army reinforcements joined a round-the-clock offensive Friday in lawless border villages where al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader was believed to be surrounded along with hundreds of other militants hunkered down in heavily armed mud fortresses. The troops set up a cordon around a 20-square-mile area, as residents _ many said to be sympathetic to the militants _ streamed out of the besieged region in pickup trucks loaded with their families and possessions. Afghan authorities reported the arrests of midlevel terrorist leaders on their side of the border. Army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan said the army believes a mix of foreigners and local Pakistani tribesmen are holed up in several villages in South Waziristan, where Pakistani paramilitary forces began an operation against al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives four days ago. "From the type of resistance we are getting ... the militants could be anything from 300 to 400," he told a news conference. Sultan said authorities’ intelligence assessment was that a high-level fugitive was among the fighters, although he had not been seen and it was unclear whether it was Ayman al-Zawahri, who is Osama bin Laden’s deputy. "The type of resistance, the type of preparation of their defensive positions, the hardened fortresses they have made means we can assume that there could probably be some high-value target there," Sultan said from the army press office in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital, Islamabad. But he disputed claims by four senior Pakistani officials that captured militants had revealed that al-Zawahri was among them, and possibly injured. "So far, whatever people we have apprehended, we have not got confirmation from them," he said _ but quickly added the army could not share such intelligence anyway in an ongoing operation. Villagers in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, said heavy guns fired through the night and jet fighters were visible in the area, as fighting spread Friday to two more tribal villages. Helicopter gunships fired rockets at houses in Shin Warsak, five miles southwest of Wana, the villagers said. Residents reported seeing scores of army trucks carrying troops and weapons moving from Wana to the targeted areas. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "Hey Lana--- Ya Wana?" Western decadent song from the late 70's. DJ got the 411 on that lyric? |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2004-3-19 12:15:03 PM |