ISLAMABAD, 30 March 2004 — Al-Qaeda’s intelligence chief was killed and an Uzbek militant leader ranked No. 10 in the terror network wounded in last week’s Pakistani army siege near the Afghan border, the military said yesterday.
“Mr. Abdullah, who was the chief of Al-Qaeda intelligence, was killed in this operation,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told a press conference, citing “intelligence sources”.
No information on Abdullah’s nationality or full name were available, he said. He refused to confirm whether the military had recovered Abdullah’s body, saying only: “This was confirmed through the intelligence sources. At this moment I do not have any further information.”
The leader of the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yuldashev, was wounded in the 12-day operation but escaped, Sultan said. “Mr. Tahir Yuldashev, who is No. 10 in the Al-Qaeda hierarchy, was injured with his associates and he’s hiding somewhere,” Sultan said.
The bloody siege by some 7,500 army and paramilitary troops against an estimated 500 Al-Qaeda fighters and tribal allies, near the South Waziristan town of Wana some 20 km (12 miles) from the Afghan border, wound down yesterday.
Sixty-three militants were killed and 166 fighters — 93 Pakistani tribesmen and 73 foreigners — were captured, Sultan said.
Among them were Afghans, Arabs, Chechens, Uighurs from China, and Uzbeks, the military said at the weekend.
Sultan said Al-Qaeda fighters had threatened, terrorized or paid large sums of money to local tribesmen to hide them.
“Some of them are living (with tribes) forcibly and some of them are paying rent as high as $500 a month for a compound,” Sultan said.
The operation was the largest by Pakistani forces in the semi-autonomous tribal zone, which the troops entered for the first time in early 2002 to seal the border against fleeing Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters.
At least 46 government soldiers were killed and 26 injured, Sultan said. “We feel this is quite a heavy casualty figure... We are proud of our soldiers who have laid down their lives for a national cause,” he said.
