Musharraf Vows to Crush Al-Qaida Men, Their Supporters in Tribal Region

AP ^ | July 1, 2004

[nuconvert]

Musharraf Vows to Crush Al-Qaida Men, Their Supporters in Tribal Region

The Associated Press

Jul 1, 2004

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan's president vowed Thursday to wipe out al-Qaida gunmen and their supporters in a remote tribal region along the border with Afghanistan. "We know al-Qaida men are present in Wana," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said at a meeting held in the capital, Islamabad, according to Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. "They are terrorists and we will crush them."

Wana, a main town in South Waziristan, has been the scene of several military operations against al-Qaida fugitives and their local supporters in recent months.

The area is considered a possible hide-out for Osama bin Laden, though there is no concrete information on his whereabouts.

On June 18, Pakistan's army killed Nek Mohammed, a renegade tribal leader accused of sheltering al-Qaida suspects in the area after tracing him to a mud-brick compound via a satellite phone.

Six other people, including two suspected al-Qaida men, also died in the attack.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has deployed about 70,000 troops in its tribal regions to prevent al-Qaida fugitives from sneaking into Pakistan or going back to Afghanistan.

[mylife]

ALRIGHT PERVEZ!

[POA2]

Way to go Mushharraf -

This is exactly what we need - a real force moving throughout this region as well as further NE (I think that would be the direction from Wana) toward Chitral (PAK) -

We need to put as much pressure as possible in forcing Al Zawahiri, Omar and perhaps UBL (if he is alive) into moving - Only by flushing them out will our guys have a shot at taking them down (out).

I'd say we have about 3 months of good weather left to get them before the year is out -