Posted on 03/19/2004 1:33:55 AM PST by JohnHuang2
KABUL, March 19 (Reuters) - Afghanistan has sent hundreds of extra troops to its border with Pakistan to prevent any attempt by al Qaeda militants, who may include Osama bin Laden's deputy, fleeing from a Pakistani military onslaught, officials said.
Kabul was in close touch with Islamabad but had no independent confirmation that al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri was among militants in a compound under assault in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad said on Friday.
However he said "a few hundred" extra troops had been sent to the border region in Paktika province, opposite the area of the Pakistani operation, to help block off any escape route.
"There is a heightened alert and state of readiness," he said. "They have been sent there to make sure Afghan territory is secure."
The troops were sent in to supplement those already operating alongside thousands of U.S.-led troops taking part in a major anti-militant operation across southern and eastern Afghanistan code-named "Mountain Storm."
Part of the aim of Mountain Storm is to create a "hammer and anvil" effect with Pakistani forces, to ensure no militants can flee into Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.
HOLED UP IN COMPOUNDS
Pakistani officials have said al-Zawahri might be among a group of militants holed up in well-fortified compounds under attack to the west of the town of Wana.
"We do know that a fairly large group of terrorists associated with al Qaeda and probably one or two of their prominent figures and leaders may be holed up in Pakistan," Samad said. "We are hopeful that very soon we will have good news."
"I hope that in this case these elements will not be able to escape and that all escape routes around the Wana region as well as those leading inside Afghanistan will be blocked and we will not see a repeat of some other events in the past when some of these al Qaeda leaders were able to get away."
Samad said capturing or killing al-Zawahri would be a major coup but it would not spell the end of a network that has now spread itself all over the world.
"The world would definitely be a better and safer place, but it does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that it would be the end of international terrorism as we know it, or the end of al Qaeda."
Since the late-2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that overthrew al Qaeda's Taliban protectors, the network had decentralised and spread itself widely around world, he said.
"We see events happening across the world, in the Far East, Europe, the Arab world, that are all part of this decentralised new al Qaeda network, so the war will continue definitely."
Samad doubted al-Zawahri and bin Laden would be in close proximity, even though they were known to have travelled together in the past and may have escaped Afghanistan together.
"It is very probable that given the amount of pressure that has been brought on them, especially in the past few months by the Pakistani military and on our side of the border by the Afghan, U.S. and Coalition forces, they may have decided to part ways and for their own safety's sake."
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