Free Republic

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan will hunt down a former Guantanamo Bay inmate who masterminded the abduction of two Chinese engineers, one of whom died after a rescue operation in which five kidnappers were killed, officials said Friday. Al Qaeda-linked tribesman Abdullah Mehsud directed the six-day hostage drama -- which caused consternation in key ally China -- from a hideout in the hills of the South Waziristan tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, they said. After Pakistani commandos killed the kidnappers in the nearby Chagmalai area Thursday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf promised Chinese President Hu Jintao the masterminds would be...

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces killed a top tribal warrior wanted for sheltering al Qaeda militants in an overnight swoop on his hideout in a remote region bordering Afghanistan, officials said Friday. Nek Mohammad, who protected foreign fighters with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in the semi-autonomous South Waziristan tribal area, died with four supporters in the raid on a mud-walled compound near the region's main town of Wana, 250 miles southwest of Islamabad. Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan called the strike a "big success in the war against terror" and described Mohammad as a...