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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL257149.htm

Pakistan seeks U.S. intelligence in al Qaeda hunt
14 Jul 2004 14:10:41 GMT

By Mike Collett-White

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 14 (Reuters) - Pakistan has asked the United States for more intelligence to help its forces track down top al Qaeda figures such as Osama bin Laden believed to be hiding near the Afghan border, a top official said on Wednesday.

Brigadier Mehmood Shah, head of security in tribal agencies where tens of thousands of Pakistani troops are trying to flush out al Qaeda fighters, said he had no specific information about the whereabouts of bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

"We haven't got any intelligence," he told Reuters in Peshawar, a city close to the Afghan border.

"In fact, we are asking our friends the Americans if they have any from the satellites, because they have better capabilities. I think they have not been able to give us that."

The United States has persistently put pressure on Pakistan to do more to crush Islamic militants, and on Wednesday Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in New Delhi that Pakistan should step up its crackdown on Taliban remnants.

The U.S. military suspects Taliban fighters are crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan to wage an insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

But al Qaeda guerrillas hiding in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt have been more closely associated with militant attacks on targets inside Pakistan, including President Pervez Musharraf, who narrowly survived two assassination attempts in December.

The al Qaeda-linked fighters, among them Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks, have been sheltered by some Pakistani tribes since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 deprived bin Laden of his refuge in Afghanistan.

TRIBESMEN TURN ON MILITANTS

But in a new development that could make life more difficult for fugitive fighters, some Pakistani tribesmen have turned on a group of 100 to 150 foreign militants being hunted by government troops near the village of Shakai, Shah said.

"According to my information, yesterday when they (militants) were firing on the army, there was fire exchanged between the locals and those foreigners," he said.

"They are now in a destabilised state."

No "high value" targets were believed to be among the militants in the area, he added.

Some Pakistani tribesmen, including the Zali Kheil in South Waziristan, had sheltered and fought alongside al Qaeda suspects during Pakistani military operations in March and June in which a total of more than 200 people were killed.

South Waziristan is the southernmost of seven tribal agencies and lies 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Islamabad.

Shah said the group of 100 to 150 foreign fighters were holed up in mountains near Shakai, from where they were firing mortars at Pakistani forces.

On Tuesday, two children died of wounds sustained in one such attack near Shakai, said military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan.

Shah urged the army to pursue the guerrillas before they dug in.

"It will take them time to get settled into a new area and we should not let them get settled," he said.

Armed resistance by up to 600 foreign fighters in tribal areas should drop off sharply if those near Shakai were routed, Shah said. But he warned that they could flee over the mountains into North Waziristan if given too much time.

Links between foreign militants in the tribal belt and violence in Pakistan have been weakened by military operations.

Shah said explosives used in one of the attempts on Musharraf's life were transported from tribal areas, and the attackers who fired on the corps commander's cavalcade in Karachi may have received orders from South Waziristan. (Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider in ISLAMABAD)