By AHSANULLAH WAZIR, Associated Press Writer
WANA, Pakistan - Pakistani forces discovered a mile-long tunnel leading from a besieged mud fortress to a dry stream bed, and said Monday the secret passage may have allowed top al-Qaida suspects to escape toward the Afghan frontier.
The revelation came as Pakistani authorities began DNA tests to identify foreign terrorists killed in the weeklong offensive in South Waziristan, where thousands of troops have been battling hundreds of die-hard militants.
Forces first found a tunnel connecting the heavily fortified compounds of two tribal elders — Nek Mohammed and Sharif Khan — who have been leading supporters of some 500-600 foreign terrorists, said Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for the tribal areas.
From that passage, they found the mile-long tunnel running under the town of Kaloosha, about nine miles from the Afghan border, to a dry stream bed on the edge of the craggy, treacherous mountains that straddle the frontier.
"There is a possibility that the tunnel may have been used at the start of the operation," Shah told journalists in Peshawar, the provincial capital.
Three senior officials have told The Associated Press that they believe al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri may have been at the site, though the government has repeatedly said it does not know who is inside. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that a "high-value" target was likely involved.
The tunnel, which undoubtedly took months to construct, was another indication an important fugitive was in the area at some point. South Waziristan is considered the most likely hideout for al-Zawahri and his boss, terror chief Osama bin Laden.
The Pakistani military has clamped a 20-square-mile cordon around Kaloosha and several other tribal towns in South Waziristan, and say they are confident nobody has escaped the area.
But the cordon did not exist at the disastrous start of the operation Mar. 16, when Pakistani forces who thought they were going to arrest local tribesmen were surprised by a ferocious barrage from within the compound walls. Fifteen soldiers and 26 militants died in the initial assault; the military sent in thousands of reinforcements over the following two days.
Pakistan's military said it was conducting DNA tests to identify six suspected foreign terrorists killed in the fighting, but would not elaborate on whether they included any important terror figure.
Five bodies of what appeared to be 25- to 30-year-old men were displayed to journalists late Sunday at a military mortuary in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian surgeon, is 52 years old.
The bodies were laid out on stretchers and in open coffins in bloodied clothes.
Military officials said they were all foreigners, but it was impossible for journalists to determine their nationalities. They said the sixth body had decomposed and that it would have been inhumane to show it.
"At this moment, whatever information we have about the tests we would not like to give out until we are 200 percent sure who they are," army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told a press conference.
"For us, every foreigner who is caught or killed is important, because we do not know who they are," Sultan told AP earlier. "We took the decision to do DNA tests to confirm the identities of these people."
"I cannot say if any among them is al-Zawahri," he said.
The developments came as Gen. John Abizaid, leader of U.S. Central Command, made a visit to Pakistan. Sultan said Abizaid met with a top Pakistani army official, and insisted the trip had nothing to do with the offensive in Waziristan.
Abizaid's last known visit to Pakistan came on Jan. 16, when he met with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. That trip was just a week after the last major operation by Pakistan's military in South Waziristan.
In that operation, Ahmad Said al-Kadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen suspected of being a top al-Qaida financier, was killed along with seven other suspects.
In Wana on Monday, an 18-member tribal peace delegation crossed through the military cordon for talks with elders of the Yargul Khel tribe, believed to be fighting alongside the al-Qaida militants.
The delegation carried a white flag and brought with it three government demands for the fighters: free 12 soldiers and two government officials taken captive last week; hand over tribesmen involved in the fighting; and kick out any foreigners or show the military where to track them down.
Shah said that "in light of the past experience we are not very hopeful" the delegation would succeed.
Some 5,000-6,000 Pakistani forces have been fighting 400-500 foreign militants and tribesmen in what has become Pakistan's largest military operation in its tribal regions since the government threw its support behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism in late 2001.
Shah said 123 suspects have been arrested in the week-old offensive. He said the homes of 13 tribesmen accused of harboring the terrorists were leveled on Sunday and Monday. Security officials say their prisoners included Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and ethnic Uighurs from China's predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province.
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Associated Press reporters Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Paul Haven in Islamabad contributed to this report.
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Monday it was troubled by Israel's killing of Ahmed Yassin, a founder of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, and said it had no advance warning of the attack.
While not condemning Israel's attack, the State Department said it increases tensions and would make it harder to pursue peace in the Middle East. "We are troubled," spokesman Richard Boucher. However, he did not directly condemn Israel's killing of the spiritual leader of Hamas as he left a mosque in Gaza.
Still, Secretary of State Colin Powell intended to discuss the stymied peacemaking process in a meeting with visiting Israel Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom that had been scheduled weeks ago.
The killing of the Hamas leader raised fears of possible retaliation against the United States. "Anytime threats are made against the United States, we take them seriously," a U.S. counterterrorism official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
U.S. counterterrorism officials said they would watch closely after Hamas said it would also hold the United States responsible for the attack.
Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, said Israel gave the United States no advance warning of the attack. And Boucher said no one in the U.S. government had been informed before Israel killed Yassin and two of his body guards with a missile attack.
Bush administration officials urged restraint on both sides in the conflict, while European nations and the United Nations flatly condemned Israel.
Rice said she knew of no consultations between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush about any plan to target the sheik, who helped found the group in 1987.
But Rice, asked about U.S. reaction to the attack during an interview on NBC's "Today" show, said: "Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that Sheik Yassin has himself, personally, we believe, been involved in terrorist planning."
Denouncing Yassin as "the godfather of suicide bombers," Foreign Minister Shalom said Israel was doing everything it could to coordinate with the United States. But, he told reporters after meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, "it didn't include this action."
Shalom called the attack "pure self-defense in order to protect our people."
Interviewed by Israel TV Channel 2, he said, "Israel is an independent, sovereign country that on defense issues reaches decisions independently."
By contrast to the U.S. response, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the assassination "is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives," and other European foreign ministers and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned it as a violation of international law.
After the killing, Hamas directly threatened the United States — something it usually does not do — saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible. "All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime," Hamas said in a statement.
In the past, Hamas has insisted that its fight is against Israel and has refrained from targeting U.S. citizens or interests, instead focusing on fund-raising and recruitment within the United States, according to senior federal law enforcement officials. Investigations regarding Hamas in this country have focused mostly on front companies and charities that funnel millions of dollars to the terrorist group.
Earlier this year, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that Hamas was a threat within the United States but had not demonstrated it would act violently.
At the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said it was important for "the parties to exercise maximum restraint."
"We urge everyone to remain calm in the region," he said. "Our policy remains the same" — that those on both sides be aware of the consequences of their actions, McClellan told a White House briefing.
"There was no warning given to us," McClellan said.
Yassin was killed with seven other people early Monday as he left a mosque in the Gaza Strip. The killing also sparked larger, more violent demonstrations throughout the Hamas stronghold of Gaza.
Rice said, "It is very important that everyone step back and try now to be calm in the region."
"There is always a possibility of a better day in the Middle East and some of the things that are being talked about by the Israelis, about disengagement from areas, might provide new opportunities," she said. "And so I would hope that nothing will be done that would preclude those new opportunities from emerging."
A week ago, the Bush administration had warned that meaningful peace talks progress in Mideast peacemaking would be very difficult unless Palestinian leaders cracked down on terror groups. This followed two suicide bombings in Israel.