Posted on 09/03/2008 12:48:39 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Pakistan's security forces have missed the opportunity to capture al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a senior government official has said.
Rehman Malik, the adviser to Pakistan's prime minister on security affairs, said on Monday they also received a report al-Zawahiri's wife had been in the tribal region of Mohmand.
Pakistani forces stormed the location but did not find the couple, he said, without indicating when the raid took place.
He said al-Zawahri moved between Mohmand and the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktika.
"We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he's moving in Mohmand and, of course, sometimes in Kunar, mostly in Kunar and Paktia."
Al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda's leader, have been in hiding since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
They are both believed to be in tribal region that straddles northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.
According to Malik, three weeks of fighting in the Pakistani-Afghan border district of Bajur had killed a number of civilians and badly damaged several villages.
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad quoted a tribal and security sources as saying 15 Pakistani civilians were killed in tribal area of Bajaur when two shells fell on their two homes.
Of about 500,000 people who fled, many of them to government relief camps, about 30,000 had returned by Monday.
Hand in glove
Malik said the Pakistani Taliban were working directly with Al-Qaeda, providing them with shelter and acting as their mouthpiece.
"They have not only connections, I would say Tehrik-e-Taliban is an extension of Al-Qaeda," he said, referring to a Pakistani Taliban umbrella group which authorities blame for a string of bomb attacks over the past year that have killed hundreds of people.
Pakistan last month banned the Taliban group, which was also accused of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, in December.
The US says Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are based in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas where they orchestrate attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plot
violent attacks in the West.
The resignation of Pervez Musharraf, the former president and staunch US ally, last month raised questions about the government's commitment to the unpopular US-led "war on terror" campaign.
But US Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US armed forces, said last week he was encouraged by recent Pakistani action against fighters, while adding both Pakistan
and the United States needed to do more to shore up security.
Back to the War News!
I still say a few BLU-73s would greatly reduce the margin of error
I’m still not convinced OBL is alive, but Zawahiri is, and he’s got just as much American blood on his hands as bin Laden does.
Nailing him would be sweet, sweet justice.
The Dihms know if this happens, they lose, BIG.
The Dihms know if this happens, they lose, BIG.
Is it just me or are there server issues causing the double posts?
So would a W-88.
When you care enough to send the very best...
Tell them to re-calibrate their sights and get back out there!
When did John Lovitz join the Pakistani Army?
It's not just you.
Is it just me or are there server issues causing the double posts?
It's not just you.
Damn!
I need to get out a map.
You are assuming that they really want to get him.
I am often getting a blank screen after trying a post...often it has actually achieved the post...but failed with the notification back.....
*****************************EXCERPT**********************
Mohmand Agency is the most heavily populated Agency. According to the the 1998 census, its population stood at 3,92,000 with a fairly high density of 171 persons per square kilometre and extremely un-favourable land-man ratio.
Wouldn't some of our special ops guys (sharp-shooters) equipped with Barrett .50's and stat-of-the-art scopes, knowing where Zawahiri is be able to pick him off at about 1/2 mile out? Perhaps, Mullah Omar with him if they're out in the open discussing stratagies...
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