HomelandSecurityUS.NET

Is Osama Cornered In Pakistan?

Feb. 22, 2004
Report: Special forces closing in on bin Laden
By JPOST.COM STAFF

US Armed Forces have closed in on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Ladin's hideout and are awaiting orders to storm the encampment, the London-based Sunday Express newspaper reported on Sunday.

Quoting "a US intelligence source", the paper said that bin Laden was holed up in a military camp in the Afghanistan mountains together with up to 50 fanatical henchmen north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta.

"He is boxed in," the unidentified source was quoted by the paper as saying, adding US special forces were "absolutely confident" that this time bin Ladin could not escape.

Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Umar is believed to be with bin Ladin, according to the report.

The area is under surveillance from a spy satellite while US and British special forces await orders to move in, the newspaper said

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Sunday February 22, 7:22 AM


US and British special forces have cornered Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a mountainous area in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, it was reported.

Quoting "a US intelligence source," the Sunday Express newspaper said bin Laden and "up to 50 fanatical henchmen" were inside an area 16 kilometres (10 miles) wide and deep "north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta".

"He is boxed in," the unidentified source was quoted by the tabloid as saying, adding that US special forces were "absolutely confident" that he could not escape.

According to the source, bin Laden moved into the area, "in the desolate Toba Kakar mountains," about one month ago from another area 240 kilometres to the south, the Sunday Express said.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is believed to be with bin Laden, it said.

The area is under surveillance from a geostationary spy satellite while US and British special forces await orders to move in, the newspaper said in its early edition, received late Saturday.

Al-Qaeda is held responsible for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001. More recently, it has been suspected of supporting insurgent attacks on US forces in Iraq.

On Thursday, General Richard Meyers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said US forces were engaged in "intense" efforts to capture bin Laden, but held back from saying where he might be hiding.

"There are areas where we think it is most likely he is, and they remain the same," said Meyers, who was speaking to reporters in Washington. "They haven't changed in months," said Myers.

Asked whether the Al-Qaeda leader was believed to be in Pakistan, the general replied: "Don't know that. We think in that border region somewhere. We don't know where it is precisely."

The Sunday Express said it was also told in London by "a senior Republican close to the White House and the Pentagon" this past week that bin Laden had been located.

"They have found bin Laden," the source -- described as an "intimate" of the family of US President George W. Bush -- was quoted as saying. "They now know where he is within a manageable area which can be watched and controlled."

The Sunday Express said bin Laden's whereabouts had been discovered from "a combination of CIA paramilitaries and special forces, plus image analysis by geographers and soil experts".

"They studied the background in bin Laden's last video and matched it to rocks in the Toba Kakar region," the newspaper said.

"A two-man special forces surveillance unit them infiltrated the area," it said, adding that they picked up their first clues that bin Laden was in the area within a week.

"Other teams then slipped in," the Sunday Express quoted its source as saying. "To avoid any alert, helicopters were not used."

The last known video tape from bin Laden was aired in September by the Arabic all-news television station al-Jazeera. Three audio tapes followed, in October, December and January.

A graphic published alongside the Sunday Express report indicated that the area in which bin Laden is supposedly hiding is immediately to the north of the Pakistani towns of Khanozai and Murgha.



Original URL: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040221/1/3i7nq.html

POSTED 2-22-2004

If I asked a farmer in the Pakistani kiblah region of Khaibar about if he the Al-Qaeda Network leader Osama Ben Ladin has watched or a bearded long person he resembles it, the better answer gets it she keep silent O Iblis 's son .

The answer, the less a quality and he is not the worse, doing of one of tribes leaders may be by the firing on you for its worry from your questioning, according to brigadier Mohammad Shah 's theory, the administrator about the region .

Often the fighters and the dissenters resorted through the history to the mountains and the rough valleys that the limits region distinguish between Pakistan and Afghanistan . And American officials now believe that Ben Laden, has resorted also to this region that witnesses a growth by the feeling hostile to the United States . And the Chief of Staff of the American armies declared the general Richard Myers yesterday is that the United States exerts intensive efforts for carrying out the arrest Ali Bin Ladn .

And Khaibar region settles tens of the Pashtunian tribes hardline in its independence, the one that its men along their statures are famous, and their beards as with wearing the uniform, Alshaloar shirt, and he the dress himself that Ben Laden authorized has its move to Afghanistan the year 1995, if Ben Laden is disguised within these men, as the American officials believe through the borders in Afghanistan, the possibility of its discrimination is about the thousands from the weapon holders that a difficult appears .

And the Pashtunian tribes relate to an agreement with the Pakistani authority, the favour in its achievement returns to the British before their withdrawal from the region in the year 1947, and the agreement bans to the Pakistani government the sending of its soldiers or the forces of its police to the remote region . Therefore there are no law men and capable trained customers on you stand Ben Laden 's effect and its detention, and its supporters, who the American officials say that they execute raid operations are in the Afghan depth emerged from their hideouts in the Pakistani mountains .

And Washington an end last month declared that it intends the launch of a wide military attack in spring for the cleaning of the region from the terrorists .

And the general David declared Parnu, the American Forces Commander in Afghanistan, last Tuesday is that Pakistan have started its special attack in the region . And he clarified that the American and Afghan forces will be waiting on the other side of the limits for their detention in what the Pakistani forces push to outside its lands . And despite that, said Parnu, Ben Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar may not be among the detainees the end of this year .
And despite the presence of thousands the American and Pakistani soldiers and the Afghans in the region, appears that one he does not know where the Al-Qaeda leader hides .

And the length of the kiblah belt reaches about thousand mile and extends through a rough mountain region that hundreds of the narrow passages penetrates . And he manages fugitive from the justice from the move through it easily . The region is hostile by her nature, and its doubts about the tribes men nature that do not trust the intruders . And the tribes convoys move through the borders without any documents, as the habit was used to it throughout ages . And the American officials fear of violent reactions if they try the imposition of restrictions on the travel . And a Shah says we believe that Ben Laden very keen, then he do not move within big groups, this if he was moving a basis . And a Shah clarifies, and he is Pashtunian strong relations link it with the tribes leaders, its sources informed it that I have Ben Laden between 100 and 200 faithful fighters that imitated around it what resembles the protection network, and they do not approach it many so that they do not draw the attention .

And despite its insistence that Ben Laden spends most of its time in the Afghan side from the border region, but it shows a probability that the Al-Qaeda leader have escaped to the Pakistani side from the region when the American forces bombarded its hideouts in the Afghan valley of Tora Bora before two years .

And the general Parnu says that the Pakistani forces carry out now burdening responsibility what takes place in the region to the tribes sheikhs . And the one that refuses the submission faces the destruction of its tribe 's منازل and its properties and what resembled from the works an Alzgria .

And the Pakistani forces have detained recently hundreds of the tribes men for their cooperation with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and destroyed their houses and their schools . And Pakistan tries also the foundation of permanent military presence of it in the kiblah region . She has split the ways and built the schools with financing from the United States . And despite that, then the lots in the region are still sympathizing with Talban, if he was not with the rule to religious and ethnic motives, a science that most tribes men concerned, a Kaltalbaniin, from the religious fanatic and belong to the Pashtunian tribes .( UPI )

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