Posted on 07/16/2007 7:40:40 AM PDT by nmh
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Pakistani forces backed by US special units are closing in on al Qaeda’s No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri and possibly also Osama bin Laden
Our counter-terror sources report exclusively that a frantic effort by al Qaeda and Taliban to head off the pursuit set afoot the bloody battle in Islamabad’s Red Mosque, the attempts to shoot down President Pervez Musharraf’s plane and the suicide attacks on Pakistani military convoys, which cost 68 lives Saturday and Sunday, July 14-15.
Until the middle of last week, Zuwahiri sheltered with the local Pashtun tribes in Bannu, a town in the northwest Pakistan tribal federation of North Waziristan. The approach of Pakistani and US intelligence and special forces caused him to switch hiding places and move to Tank or Tang, a town 120 km south of Bannu.
On Saturday, two soldiers were injured by a bomb explosion in that town, having just missed their quarry.
Musharraf meanwhile decided last week to storm the Red Mosque on a tip-off from his own Inter-Service Intelligence that two of Zawahiri’s closest lieutenants, Majid Hassan al-Tawil and Mohammad Othman, were inside.
They were reported to be preparing a mega-attack in Islamabad and other important Pakistani towns to disrupt the combined Pakistani-US operation to capture their master.
At that point, Pakistani intelligence turned up a lead to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at debka.org ...
Can’t vouch for Debka (an understatement), but I do recall that in the final hours of the Red Mosque seige, there were several mentions that the only people remaining alive in inside were non-Pakistani Arabs. Some kids who were being held hostage said the Arabs were with them in the basement, then they were suddenly gone, apparently through a tunnel to an adjacent property.
So the notion that these guys were mostly al Qaeda (which I heard and read being expressed by Pakistanis) is likely to be true.
The only people supporting and celebrating the actions of the Red Mosque terrorists were the (primitive and barbaric) Waziris, who were being roundly criticized by other Pakistanis (my news sources that day had been FR, the realtime forum at paktribune.com, and a couple English-language realtime news feeds from Pakistani TV).
Bottom line is that AQ has probably lost a great deal of sympathy in Pakistan, at least among thinking people.
Anything is possible, especially from DEBKA.
That was me. Here's the post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865481/posts?page=18#18
Well, taking into consideration that it’s Debka, my hopes of catching either of these two demons just went up by .02%
Thanks.
YOu are very informed.
To: Sub-Driver
Here’s one possibility. Here’s a paragraph from Muhammad’s last sermon:
Ye people! Listen to my words: I will deliver a message to you, for I know not whether, after this year, I shall ever be amongst you here again. O people! verily your blood, your property and your honor are sacred and inviolable until you appear before your Lord, as this day and this month are sacred for all. Verily you will meet your Lord and you will be held answerable for your actions. Have I not conveyed the message? O Allah! Be my witness. He who has any trust with him, should restore it to the person who deposited it with him. Beware, no one committing a crime is responsible for it but he himself. Neither the son is responsible for the crime of his father, nor the father responsible for the crime of his son.
Who knows what it means? Maybe Zawahiri is not well.
18 posted on 07/13/2007 10:32:24 AM PDT by Our man in washington
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865481/posts?page=18#18
Thanks for going to the trouble!
Something is going on ... .
"Bush should have gotten him years ago in Tora Bora."
"Bush chose this time to nab him, so as to divert attention from the US attorneys firings."
"Bin Laden is a made-up figure, designed to frighten Americans into supporting Bush's corrupt cronies in the defense industry. Bush had to kill him off because he knew the jig was up (ala Congressional investigations into Administration lies)."
"Bin Laden had to be killed because he was about to squeal about his collusion with Bush, the CIA, and Karl Rove"
Allah’s in a bar?
Given that Zawahiri is comfortable enough to release daily videos (during the Red Mosque siege he was responding to events almost the same day), I don’t think he’s in any serious danger.
On the other hand, the siege and subsequent attacks may have convinced secular Pakistan that it’s fighting for its life, and may have to attack accordingly.
Early reports confirm they’re somewhere on Earth.
You make me ROTFALOL!!!
Your take on this, sir?
That’s not the encouraging news I wanted to hear ...
;)
It may not be a coincidence that they have doubled the bounty of OBL to $50 million.
Thanks.
I’m thinking that it was either a message to the defenders of the Red Mosque or a sign that Zawahiri believes his time is up.
Confused-ius Say: “Even blind squirrel find occasional nut”...
Move along....
“Confused-ius Say: “Even blind squirrel find occasional nut”...”
I like that ... I’ll have to remember that one!
:)
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