Posted on 03/20/2004 1:31:16 AM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON - Thousands of Pakistani troops poured heavy fire into the mountain stronghold where Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, may be hiding, but American officials fretted he may have gotten away.American Predator drones hovered over the battlefield and about a dozen U.S. intelligence officers were helping the Pakistanis as the battle raged for the fourth day.
Thousands of civilians poured out of the 20-square-mile area surrounded by about 7,000 soldiers, but little else was known about what was going on in the remote region along the Afghanistan border.
"I don't know the situation today," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on CNN. "Pakistan has caused a lot of press attention, and it's not clear to me who's there, if anybody."
"I know that today there have been pitched battles...and a fair amount of people being killed on both sides," said an intelligence officer.
But as for Al-Zawahiri's fate, the official said, "We still don't know."
Another intelligence source said American officials grew "increasingly skeptical" about the operation when Pakistani forces, awaiting reinforcements Thursday night, gave the Al Qaeda fighters a deadline to surrender.
The deadline passed without any surrenders and the fighting resumed.
"It seems to be reminiscent of what we saw in Afghanistan at Tora Bora," said the source, referring to the escape by Al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden during a mountain battle with Afghan troops in late 2001.
"Hesitation, negotiation, deadlines being given, exceeded, given again. It doesn't look all that hopeful," the source added. "It looks a lot softer right now. "
A Taliban spokesman claimed both Al-Zawahiri and Bin Laden were safe in Afghanistan.
But a Pakistani general rejected the possibility that any of the Al Qaeda fighters may have slipped away.
"They are surrounded, and they are trying to break the cordon and get away," military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told a news briefing in the capital, Islamabad.
"From the cordon we have put around these places, we are certain nobody would have escaped," he said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said U.S. and Afghan troops had captured "semi-senior" terrorist leaders along the border with Pakistan, as they tightened security along the rugged frontier.
Presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said it was unclear whether those detained had fled the battle in Pakistan, and declined to give any details of who might be in custody.
With News Wire Services
Originally published on March 20, 2004
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