Posted on 03/20/2004 7:30:58 AM PST by Incorrigible
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By Simon Denyer
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected senior al Qaeda member whom the Pakistani army thought it had surrounded in a remote area on the Afghan border is probably a Chechen or Uzbek militant leader, a Pakistani commander said on Saturday.
Thousands of Pakistani troops have been locked in battle with al Qaeda fighters and their tribal allies in Pakistan's wild South Warizistan tribal area since Tuesday.
Dozens of fighters have been killed and about 100 suspected militants, many of them foreigners, captured, the army said. Commanders said the fierce defense the rebels mounted suggested they were trying to protect a "high-value target," who officials said was possibly Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
But intercepted rebel radio communications suggested the mystery militant leader was an Uzbek or a Chechen. Zawahri is Egyptian.
"He is most probably a Chechen or Uzbek because all the intercepts we have been receiving have been in the Chechen or Uzbek language," Lieutenant-General Safder Hussain told reporters visiting the western town of Wana, near the fighting.
Hussain said speculation Zawahri had been with the militants was "conjecture." Zawahri, a doctor, is regarded as the brains of al Qaeda. He is thought to be one of the key figures behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The capture of one of the world's most wanted men would be a major coup for the United States, under fire over its rationale for the war in Iraq. Saturday is the first anniversary of the start of that conflict.
Hussain, the top military commander in the region, did not say who the Chechen or Uzbek militant leader might be.
An intelligence source said earlier two Chechen militants, identified as Danyar and Quaran Ata, were believed to be in the area and there was a possibility a prominent Uzbek militant, Tahir Yaldashev, was with them.
Pakistani forces had captured about 100 militants, many of them foreign, during the fighting, Hussain said.
Reporters saw an army truck carrying 30 or 40 prisoners, blindfolded and with hands tied behind their backs.
Most wore the traditional Pakistani Shalwar Kameez shirt and baggy trousers, some wore Muslim prayer caps, others the brown woolen hats common in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
BIGGEST BATTLE
The offensive, involving several thousand soldiers, is the biggest Pakistan has waged since it joined the U.S.-led war on terror after the September 11 attacks.
Earlier, Pakistan troops and helicopters rained fire on the rebels in their well-fortified compounds.
"They are extremely professional fighters. They wait for our troops to move within five to seven meters and then open fire," Hussain said.
"They are taking us from every direction whenever our troops have moved in and we are not knowing if the locals are with us," he said. "With an undefined target like this, it is practically chasing shadows."
Hussain said the battle would soon be over but his forces had other targets in their campaign to sweep foreign militants out of Pakistan's often lawless and largely autonomous tribal lands.
"It is going to be an unending operation. It is a series of operations we are going to launch," he said.
As Hussain briefed reporters in a military compound in Wana, just to the east of the battle, Cobra attack helicopters flew overhead and the occasional sound of gunfire could be heard from across the desolate landscape of rocks and scrub.
About a dozen Americans have been giving Pakistani forces technical assistance in intelligence gathering but no U.S. ground troops have been involved, the military said.
Across the border in Afghanistan, U.S.-led forces have launched a push against the resurgent Taliban militia and their al Qaeda allies. The Pentagon is calling the twin offensives on either side of the rugged border a "hammer and anvil" operation.
About 30 Pakistani soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, officials in the area say, although the military has declined to give details of casualties.
The number of militants killed was not known, although military officials said 24, including some foreigners, were killed on the first day of the battle.
Hardline Islamic clerics have denounced the attack, warning it could breed terror strikes. Dozens of students in the western town of Dera Ismail Khan protested against it on Saturday.
"The government has made this drama for the benefit of the USA," said protester Sherbaz Ansari. "The result is the tribal people have suffered. We are sure there are no terrorists in our area, no al Qaeda." (Additional reporting by Hafiz Wazir, Zeeshan Haider in Wana)
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Why are your Chechen terrorists aiding the enemies of the United States?!
Hey Fusion, if you are reading this please come-on in! Tell me how the nice innocent Chechyan 'freedom fighters' have been so oppressed by the nasty Russo-Soviet demon-dogs that they have to go sleep with Al Queda.
And by the way Fusion, if Zawahiri is camping out at your place slap him in the kisser for me!
What in goodness name is going on there?
Call me paranoid, but the moment the Pakis bring in Usama or Zawahiri then that will be quite the day. However i fear that in the Arab world Usama and Zawa-boy are quite the revered duo, and i doubt they would want them captured and released to the Americans. Think about it, i doubt even moderate Arabs would want to see Usama subjected to what Saddam was taken through (the thoroughly refreshing delousing and tongue check).
Mullah Omar is one thing, but i doubt we will see the Pakis capturing Usama or Zawahiri. I'd even bet they would be willing to let him slip by.
Now, i could be wrong, but if i had to bet i would bet this way (wrongly or rightly).
Anyone who would say terrorists would not aid each other doesn't know what they are talking about. You should remind those people that all the major terrorist groups in the world are inter-related. Even some that seemingly do not have parallel ideologies (eg FARC is S.American and the Islamie kooks) have links when they train together. Others (eg the Chechnyans and Queda) even fight together.
Bush is the first world leader to realize that the interests of all nations have changed. It is no longer a game of playing one bad government against another for profit. All nations need to have some sort of democracy that includes individual rights.
Pakistan says militants must surrender, or die
AND:
And the mother of all threads on this:
Musharraf: High value Al-Qaeda target surrounded (Updated Info)
Over 3000 comments on this thread.
This appears not to be a coincidence! September 7, 2002 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=331115
"Another US official was also present possibly from the intelligence services. Mr Katz, who now works at the American embassy in Eritrea , declined to talk about the meeting. But other US sources said the warning was not passed on.
A diplomatic source said : "We were hearing a lot of that kind of stuff. When people keep saying the sky's going to fall in and it doesn't, a kind of warning fatigue sets in. I actually thought it was all an attempt to rattle us in an attempt to please their funders in the Gulf, to try to get more donations for the cause."
The Afghan aide did not reveal that the warning was from Mr Muttawakil, a factor that might have led the Americans to down-grade it. "As I recall, I thought he was speaking from his own personal perspective," one source said. "It was interesting that he was from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, but he gave no indication this was a message he was carrying."
Interviewed by The Independent in Kabul, the Afghan emissary said: "I told Mr Katz they should launch a new Desert Storm like the campaign to drive Iraq out of Kuwait but this time they should call it Mountain Storm and they should drive the foreigners out of Afghanistan. They also had to stop the Pakistanis supporting the Taliban."
The Taliban emissary said Mr Katz replied that neither action was possible. Nor did Mr Katz pass the warning on to the State Department, according to senior US diplomatic sources.
When Mr Muttawakil's emissary returned to Kabul, the Foreign Minister told him to see UN officials. He took the warning to the Kabul offices of UNSMA, the political wing of the UN. These officials heard him out, but again did not report the secret Taliban warning to UN headquarters. A UN official familiar with the warnings said : "He appeared to be speaking in total desperation, asking for a Mountain Storm, he wanted a sort of deus ex machina to solve his country's problems. But before 9/11, there was just not much hope that Washington would become that engaged in Afghanistan."
Officials in the State Department and in UN headquarters in New York said they knew nothing about a Taliban warning. But they said they would now be looking into the matter."
That is rediculous statement. He is information gatherer in one branch of 7 directorates of KGB...if anyone, it can be said, George Bush Senior is supporter of terrorists for he lead CIA and thus not only train Arab terrorist but knows very much proof of what Saudis and Pakies do.
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