Posted on 05/26/2008 4:50:30 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Dubai, 26 May (AKI) - (by Hamza Boccolini) - Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is hiding in the K2 mountains of northern Pakistan, according to sources cited by Arabic television network, Al-Arabiya.
The report also said US secret services were intending to drive him out in a major military operation encompassing the northern Pakistani tribal areas.
According to the Dubai-based network, in the past few days US security and military officials had a top-level summit at a military base in the Qatari capital, Doha, to plan an operation to hunt for the al-Qaeda leader.
General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq and the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Petersen, were reported to have attended the summit.
Last week Petraeus testified before a US Congressional committee about security in Iraq and warned that members of al-Qaeda based in Pakistan's tribal areas were planning a new September 11 attack.
Reports say that the CIA has located the Saudi terrorist in so-called "rooftop of the world", the area of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan to the west, in particular the chain of mountains of Nurestan and China to the north.
There are fears that Bin Laden is planning new attacks on the west using Arabs but also Europeans who have converted to Islam.
Meanwhile support for al-Qaeda is reportedly broadening, not only among the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani tribes that deny Bin Laden's presence in the area, but also fundamentalists including the Muslim Brotherhood that has changed its strategy.
The leader of the Egyptian-based brotherhood, Mahdi Akef, has called the Saudi leader "a mujahid that sincerely fights against foreign occupation to be closer to Allah".
In an interview published on the Arab website, Elaph, read by many young Saudis, Akef said he supported the activities of al-Qaeda against occupiers and not those against the people.
The first victim in this strategy was Libyan Abu Laith al-Libi, al-Qaeda's number three, killed in a US air raid in January in Mir Ali, in Pakistan's tribal areas. Two Kuwaitis were also killed in the attack and a Libyan who was one of the group's leaders.
The US aircraft had targeted an al-Qaeda summit where al-Libi was meeting Abu Obeida Tawari al-Obeidi and Abu Adel al-Kuwaiti. Another Libyan leader, Abdel Ghaffar al-Darnawi, who was previously responsible for links in Iran before moving to the frontline in Afghanistan, was also at the meeting.
After that raid, Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of a senior pro-Taliban militant commander Mullah Dadullah, was seriously injured in a blitz by the Pakistani army in February in a village in Baluchistan where he was hiding with four other militants. He was then captured by Pakistani security forces.
A few days later, the Americans began fresh action launching Drones that killed 13 militants in Waziristan in northern Pakistan and 15 terrorists were killed in another raid on 14 May in the tribal region of Bajaur, on the Afghan border.
fyi
There should be news silence on going after OBL. It should be mentioned once the S.O.B. is captured alive or preferably dead.
I’m very skeptical about this report.
Actually sounds like “leaked” disinformation to get a response, but what do I know.
Must have had his liver transplant somewhere by now..
Send the B-52’s to K2.
Too bad the K2 mountains of northern Pakistan won’t be suddenly made the K2 Grand Gorge of northern Pakistan.
Well, at least we know that it won’t be a surprise attack...
If there was such a summit, Arabic TV wouldn’t know about it unless the US wanted it known.
Probably just false info to cover for operations somewhere else....IMO.
The US military can kill OBL on sight but if they get caught listening to one of his phone calls or reading his internet mail, they will experience the wrath of Reid, Pelosi, Leahy, and the usual gang of traitors.
I don’t even want to hear the word “captured”.
LOL!
I prefer captured and executed. But simply killed isn’t bad either.
OBL is not only in the mountains, he is inside the mountains.
From your link:
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The Karakoram is a great mountain system in Northeast Pakistan and Northern India, near the Chinese border. It extends 300 miles southeastwardly from the Pamir Knot, and includes many of the world's highest peaks, and many of the world's longest glaciers. Among the high peaks is K2 (8611 m), the second highest mountain in the world. Its glaciers include, among others, the 47-mile Siachen glacier, the 36-mile Baltoro glacier, and the 76-mile combination of Hispar and Biafo, which connect at a pass. The Baltoro glacier is especially significant, as ten of the world's thirty highest peaks cluster around it, including four 8,000 meter peaks (K2 and three peaks of the Gashberbrum massif) that rise very close together at the northeast head of the glacier. The Karakoram closely parallels the Himalaya, but its peaks differ from those of the Himalaya in their sharp, angular forms. Their icy peaks are often surrounded by incredible clusters of towers and spires. The Karakoram also receives less monsoon activity than the Himalaya. In fact, many of the valleys deep in the range are very dry. The peaks, however, receive heavy winter precipitation, and, with or without monsoon rains, travel is made difficult by the run-off of melting snow and ice in July and August, which otherwise are the best months for mountaineering. The range is largely uninhabited, so approach to the mountains requires expedition-style planning.
Very funny.LOL
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I think the B-2 can carry some loads that will do the job.
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