Posted on 06/19/2004 5:18:27 PM PDT by Graybeard58
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan's army killed a renegade tribal leader accused of sheltering al-Qaida fighters, tracing him to a mud-brick compound via a satellite phone and then leveling the building in a helicopter assault, officials said Friday. Six other people also died.
"We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
A helicopter fired a missile at the hideout of Nek Mohammed near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border.
The army got its break late Thursday when a satellite phone intercept tracked Mohammed to the home of another tribal leader, according to a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not clear if the United States was involved in the phone intercept, although Pakistan is thought to lack the sophisticated satellite technology necessary for such intelligence work, and acknowledges it sometimes receives "technical help" from the Americans.
Sultan would not say how Mohammed was found, but said Pakistani forces were the ones who killed Mohammed. He said local reports that an unmanned U.S. aircraft may have fired the missile were "absurd."
Mohammed granted two phone interviews with a Pakistan-based reporter for the British Broadcasting Corp. this week, but it was not clear whether authorities used either of those calls to track him down.
In one of the interviews, Mohammed vowed to overthrow both the Pakistani and Afghan governments.
"We want to eradicate the U.S.-installed puppet governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Once we overthrow them, then there will be peace and no one will be able to harm Muslims," he said.
The security official said at least two of those killed along with Mohammed were foreigners, but they did not appear to be senior al-Qaida leaders.
About 70 foreign militants have been killed in South Waziristan since June 9, when the army launched the latest offensive against them, Hayyat said.
Mohammed led a rebellion in March in which 120 people were killed, including nearly 50 security forces. He later agreed to cooperate with the government and turn over foreign militants, but reneged on that promise, prompting the recent burst of fighting.
The U.S. military, pursuing al-Qaida on the Afghan side of the border, has been pressing hard for Islamabad to step up military activity in Waziristan.
The area is considered a possible hideout for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, though there is no hard intelligence on his whereabouts.
Mohammed was staying in the home of another tribal leader, Sher Zaman, when the army helicopters attacked late Thursday. Residents said that in addition to Mohammed, two of Zaman's grown sons, his grandson and an associate of Mohammed were killed in the attack.
in Pir Bagh, near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
On Friday, Mohammed's body was taken to his village of Kaloosha, about six miles west of Wana, where thousands attended his funeral.
Mohammed's death was a major victory for the Pakistani army, which has been embarrassed by its forces' losses in fighting with the militants. In the March assault, Pakistani forces were surprised on the first day, suffering heavy casualties and allowing hundreds of suspects to flee.
Government officials had said they believed a high-ranking al-Qaida operative possibly bin Laden No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri was surrounded in the March attack, but no senior leaders were found. An Uzbek militant, Tahir Yuldash, was reportedly injured in the assault, but he got away.
Hoo-yah!
Dead Jihadists.................Good.
I think they just bought the helicopters from us, too.
Yeah - let's tell all the other bad guys HOW we find them and track them down.
Just like what happened early on during this conflict, AP/Reuters/and the alphabets, all screamed out that we were tracking them down on the french-made xxxx cell phone, that we had their freqs, etc etc etc.
One loud warning to our enemies to quit using those phones.
So now we have others tracked and what happens? the media destroys another information source for our troops.
HOW MANY MORE AMERICANS WILL DIE now for these traitors called the 'media whores'??
Last week, Capt. Dale Dye (USMC, ret.) said that the Pakistanis had been
fairly faithful partners with the US in fighting the terrorists.
Dye's show airs on KFI 640AM in Los Angeles or over the web at
http://www.kfi640.com
5-7PM PAC TIME Sundays.
A little more good news the mainstream press will never report, but very good news nonetheless!
Except you, right Mo?
"[H]e was killed last night by our hand," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said..."
I like that "by our hand", very nice usage, and a good job again to Pakistan!
More good news.
If I recall, Nek Mohammed had previously escaped through underground tunnels in his house, when the Pakistani army was looking for Zawahiri a few months ago. Guess NM couldn't hide for ever. Great shooting with another terrorist biting the dust. It's been a good week for wiping them out - with Al-Muqrin and his second-in-command also exterminated in Saudi.
One of these days, Bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri and Zaqwari will also be wiped off the face of the earth. I believe that praying against them specifically by name will do them in eventually, as well.
The past few days of news are telling me that we have turned the corner on the WOT on many fronts and should expect much more good news than bad from now on.
Ha! And friends and family criticize me for not switching to cellular....... If I ain't talking on the phone, you can't find me
So the BBC is not useless after all.
I was thinking that too this is not too smart.
Noope. Even then they stink.
The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.
We should welcome all efforts to wipe this scum off the surface of this earth.
However pakistan is not doing anyone a favor.
Pakistan is the creator of the taliban and al qaeda.
Their recent crusade against terror again is an attempt to distract attention away from their missile program.
Pakistan, the creators of al qaeda and the taliban are busy getting together a fleet of mobile nuclear missiles to replace dead terrorists.
We should commend, applaud and encourage pakistani efforts against terror.
I would always use a muslim to kill other muslims and use pakistanis to clean the mess that they made.
But i would also take the pakistani missile and nuclear facilities out before they can reduce their nukes to a size that would fit their missiles.
These pakis, saudis and iranians have crooked us for way too long for us to settle for anything less than total compliance.
we cannot and will never let the creators of taliban and alqaeda arm themselves with a mobile fleet of missiles.
We should encourage the pakistanis, the saudis and the iranians to crack down on terror.
But we should also closely watch the pakistani and iranian nuclear programs and take them out before they threaten the west.
for the war on terror to really seek a decisive end to terror, the three terror sponsors iran, pakistan and saudi arabia have to be taken out the same way as iraq.
Good news ping!
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