LONDON, 23 February 2004 — US and British special forces have cornered Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a mountainous area in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, the Sunday Express newspaper reported.
Quoting “a US intelligence source,” it said Bin Laden and “up to 50 fanatical henchmen” were inside an area 16 km (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 km to the south, the Sunday Express said.
Taleban leader Mulla 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.
On Thursday, Gen. 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.
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 was quoted as saying.
“They now know where he is within a manageable area which can be watched and controlled,” the source said.
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 then 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 picture 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.
