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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Telegraph sez Yuldash is high-value target |
| 2004-03-21 |
| Bin Laden's number two is no longer believed to be the man cornered in Pakistan. Massoud Ansari and Philip Sherwell report on the other leading al-Qa'eda figure suspected of leading the resistance. A radical Uzbek mullah who is one of Osama bin Laden's most important lieutenants is believed to be the senior al-Qa'eda figure leading the resistance to a ferocious five-day Pakistani offensive in Waziristan, the Telegraph has learned. As heavy artillery and Cobra helicopter gunships were deployed yesterday against an international brigade of Islamic fanatics, officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan identified Tahir Yuldash, the leader of several hundred Central Asian Islamic fundamentalist fighters, as the key figure being protected by up to 400 al-Qa'eda militants. Yuldash, a founder of the hardline Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, teamed up with bin Laden in Afghanistan but has been based in Pakistani tribal areas since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001. His cordon of bodyguards is fighting the Pakistani onslaught with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. While Yuldash would be a prized captive, Pakistan faced criticism last night for at first suggesting that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who is bin Laden's right-hand man, was trapped in the vicious firefight being waged along a chain of mud fortresses in the lawless border terrain of South Waziristan. As they backed away from their claims yesterday, it was unclear whether al-Zawahiri - one of the suspected masterminds of the September 11 attacks - had been at the scene and managed to escape, or whether he was not there at all. Western officials were concerned that senior al-Qa'eda figures - a Chechen rebel leader known only as Daniar is also believed to have been embroiled in the fighting - may have slipped through the Pakistani security cordon. Yet their disappointment with the Pakistanis will be tempered by the knowledge that the CIA apparently identified the area as a likely hide-out for al-Zawahiri as long ago as December, but Washington took the decision to hold off from mounting an immediate operation. According to villagers, the ranks of fighters in Waziristan included Arabs, Chechens, Afghans, Uzbeks and Chinese Uighurs. "There has been deafening firing every day," Dilawer Khan, a resident of the nearby town of Wana, told The Sunday Telegraph. "Helicopter gunships have been dropping bombs all morning at Kaloosha and Zaragandai." The Pakistanis also claimed to have taken 100 prisoners during the offensive, although it is unclear how many are suspected al-Qa'eda operatives and how many are local tribal allies. "Many suspects who have been in the area a long time know the local language so we cannot immediately ascertain their nationalities," said Brig Mehmood Shah, the senior security commander for the border zone. One intelligence official said that last week's events would have troubling echoes of Tora Bora for President Bush if it transpired that al-Zawahiri had been in the area. The Telegraph has learned that the battleground - about 10 square miles of remote villages and mud compounds - came to the CIA's attention last December. Local tribesmen told US operatives on the ground that al-Zawahiri was sheltering near the settlements of Kaloosha, Azam Warsak, Shin Warsak and Zarangadai. The information was backed up by at least one electronically-intercepted message indicating that al-Zawahiri was in the area. Yet intelligence officials said that a decision was made in Washington not to take any immediate action. "The atrocious weather meant that any attack would be difficult and slow, giving al-Zawahiri plenty of chance to escape," said one official. "Secondly, plans were already being finalised for the current spring offensives. Thirdly, the CIA hoped to hear through local contacts that bin Laden had arrived in the area to meet his deputy. They wanted the chance to kill or capture both." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 Hi NMM it's heating up over at BlogFoeAmerica isn't it? Did you see what Alex from Minnesota said yesterday? Yikes! Taking back America by typing drunken at 5:18 a.m. NC took it on the chin yesterday. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-21 10:51:49 AM |
| #3 "the CIA apparently identified the area as a likely hide-out for al-Zawahiri as long ago as December, but Washington took the decision to hold off from mounting an immediate operation." sounds like it was written by Madeleine Halfbright, Richard Clarke, any of the other Clinton history re-writers, or NMM even. I see...Washington decided not to attack the territory in Pakland, huh? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-21 9:05:43 AM |
| #2 Huh? |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-3-21 9:01:24 AM |
| #1 What?! Another lie from Faux News pumped out by Condi and Rummy? I'm shocked |
| Posted by: NotMike Moore 2004-3-21 5:18:27 AM |