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.
Think K2 is above max altitude.
I'm sure you meant hogs, not dogs.
Would iove to see him on video begging for his life.
LOL...I didn’t even notice the vegetable type name.
The Clintons "only" cut 40%. Obama will/would unilaterally disarm.
LOL
Chitral, Chitral.
Or moved east into Baltistan, where in the mid 90s, along with Gilgit, the Shias were subject to ethnic cleansing and massacres by the PakistaniArmyJihadi Axis.
Skardu, anyone?
Ages ago, Musharraf made a telling statement that Usama is not on “sovereign Pakistani territory” which means Pakistani Kashmir, since the NWFP & Waziristan have been an integral part of Pakistan, despite being outside the purview of the Central Govt.
Google Maps works.
Mansur Ijaz in a column years ago spoke in similar terms.
Makes sense, why would Usama hang out in an area with an active US surveillance presence, near the Afghan border when the vast rugged mountainous areas of Pakistani Kashmir are tailor made for lying low.
Rumor: Bin Laden Holed Up in Pakistani Mountains (UPDATE: Rumor II: Bin Laden Dead)
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Al Arabiya is reporting that Osama bin Laden is holed up in a Pakistani cave along the China / Afghanistan border. They also claim the US is about to start a major offensive inside Pakistan. Nothing much new to these rumors, except for the part about the US planning feet on the ground in Pakistan, which in my estimation means that the entire report is bogus.
TOI:
The Central Investigation Agency (CIA) of the US has located bin Laden in the "rooftop of the world", the area of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan to the west, in particular the chain of mountains in the province of Nurestan, and China to the north, Arabic television network Al-Arabiya quoted unidentified sources as saying....There's also an interesting follow up quote about support for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda which seems rather prescient given the number of articles in the MSM over the weekend claiming that al Qaeda is at "war with itself" or that support for the group has dramatically fallen.The Dubai-based network reported that US security and military officials had a top-level meeting at a military base in Qatar's capital Doha to plan an operation to hunt for bin Laden a few days ago.
According to Al-Arabiya , support for al-Qaida is broadening among the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani tribes that deny bin Laden's presence in their areas and fundamentalists including the Muslim Brotherhood, which has changed its strategy.Thanks to Birddog26.Muslim Brotherhood leader Mahdi Akef has called bin Laden "a mujahid" fighting against "foreign occupation".
UPDATE: Or is Osama bin Laden dead? Rumormania, baby! If the truthfulness of a rumor was somehow related to my hopes, then the latter one would be empirically, ontologically, metaphysically, capital-T True.
By Dr. Rusty Shackleford at May 27, 2008 12:51 PM | | l digg this
>>China / Afghanistan border.
South of the Afghani panhandle, southwest of the Chinese border.....
This is one “Mission Accomplished” Bush needs.
Even Vegas wouldn’t have given you odds on 9.12 that Usama would be free after so much time.
Yep.
He’s dead Jim.
Read more here http://www.chitralnews.com/
Nice find. Nice info about geography, etc. and the following on topography...
Area 14850 - sq.km Glaciers /mountains - 76 %
Forests/Grazing lands - 20 % ]
Crop land/Orchard - 4 %
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