ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces missed a chance to catch al Qaeda second in command Ayman al Zawahri, the government's senior Interior Ministry official said on Monday. Zawahri and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden have been in hiding since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and are both believed to be in ethnic Pashtun tribal lands that straddle northwest Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Rehman Malik did not say when security forces had missed the chance to catch Zawahri or give any more detail about the incident. He also did not say where bin Laden might be. Malik told a news conference Zawahri was moving between Pakistan's tribal areas and the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktia. "We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he's moving in Mohmand and, of course, sometimes in Kunar, mostly in Kunar and Paktia," he said.
Mohmand is one of seven Pakistani tribal regions where Malik said both Zawahri and his wife had been. Malik said Pakistani Taliban were working hand in glove with al Qaeda, providing them with shelter and acting as their mouthpiece. "They have not only connections, I would say Tehrik-e-Taliban is an extension of al Qaeda," he said, referring to a Pakistani Taliban umbrella group which authorities blame for a string of bomb attacks over the past year that have killed hundreds of people.
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http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINISL1912720080901?rpc=401&
Pakistan: Banks directed to freeze Taliban accounts
1 Sept. 2008
Karachi - Pakistan's central bank has directed the country's commercial banks to freeze the bank accounts of one of the country's most violent militant groups, the Tehrik-e-Taliban. The State Bank of Pakistan spokesman, Syed Wasimuddin said that directives had been issued for the closure of all the accounts of the Tehrik-e-Taliban from Monday.
Under the move, no amount can be deposited or withdrawn from their accounts. The government moved against the Tehrik-e-Taliban movement after it claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks, including the devastating bomb attack that killed at least 70 people and injured many others at a Pakistani arms factory in August.
According to the Pakistani network, GeoTV, the bank has also directed commercial banks to provide all the details of these bank accounts - deposits, names of account holders, postal addresses and telephone numbers. The bank's action follows a directive from the federal government to clamp down on the organisation.
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http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2452295412
Algiers - Algeria is deploying extra security forces amid fears that Al-Qaeda is planning a wave of suicide attacks against police stations and foreign targets during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Foreign embassies in the capital, Algiers, have asked employees not to venture outside central areas of the city during Ramadan, to avoid being caught up in any such attack, according to the daily, Ech-Chourouk. Areas believed to be at high risk of suicide attacks are poor neighbourhoods in south Algiers, where most suicide bombers are reportedly recruited.
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http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.2451805743
Wanted: Living terror legend
3/31/08
One of world's most wanted terrorists, author of al-Qaeda bomb-making manual, is only known by photo of his hands. International intelligence community believes man responsible for killing, maiming hundreds of people was born in Palestinian territories .
"I know this bomb from somewhere," mumbled the intelligence expert studying recent photos from a Damascus blast. After racking his brain and going through some files trying to remember where he had seen a combination of explosives rigged to gas tanks, it finally hit him – it was the trademark of Saif al-Din ("Sword of the Faith") – one of the world's most notorious and wanted terrorists to date.
In September of 2006, an al-Qaeda affiliated terror group attempted to carry out an attack on the US Embassy in Damascus. The footage taken of the intended scene included photos of the mass explosive device, which was placed in the most structurally-vulnerable point of the building; waiting to bring it down on its inhabitants. The footage left no room for error – the device was one of the explosives developed for al-Qaeda by Saif al-Din. It was the vigilance of the Syrian and American security guards that prevented a catastrophe, saving dozens of lives, if not more.
Saif al-Din has been the focus of a worldwide manhunt for the past two years, with dismal results. The international intelligence community doesn't even know what he looks like and all they have to go on is a picture of his hands. In a world that allows one to run his whole life through an online browser, essentially never leaving the house, one cannot be too surprised that the man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan is little more than a virtual character in cyberspace.
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http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3590179,00.html