WANA, Pakistan, 20 March 2004 — Pakistani forces have surrounded between 300 and 400 rebels, both foreign militants and their Pakistani tribal allies, in a fierce battle near the border with Afghanistan, the military said yesterday. Pakistani troops pounded the besieged militants, who possibly include Osama Bin Laden’s second-in-command as well as many other Al-Qaeda fighters, for most of the day with artillery while helicopters attacked them from above.
“They are surrounded and they are trying to break the cordon and get away,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told a news briefing in the capital, Islamabad.
Referring to the figure he gave of 300 to 400 fighters he said: “This is an assessment from the fire we are receiving.”
The soldiers have faced fierce opposition from the suspected Al-Qaeda militants and tribesmen in the South Waziristan area since launching a sweep on Tuesday.
President Pervez Musharraf told CNN on Thursday the ferocity of the resistance his forces had encountered led generals to believe they were shielding a “high-value target”.
Government officials said the prominent figure might be Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s right-hand man.
But Sultan said authorities had been unable to determine if Zawahiri was actually there, and the interrogation of detained militant suspects had shed no light on the mystery.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor, is regarded as the brains of Al-Qaeda. He is believed to be one of the key figures behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The capture of one of the world’s most wanted men would be a major coup for the United States, under fire over its rationale for the war in Iraq as the first anniversary of the March 20 start of that conflict approaches.
It would also be a boost to George W. Bush ahead of this year’s presidential election, in which security is a major theme. It would strengthen his campaign to keep allies on side in the war on terror after last week’s bloody Madrid train bombings.
The fighting, pitting several thousand government troops against several hundred militants, is centered on an area to the west of the town of Wana that includes Shin Warsak village.
Western intelligence sources say Zawahiri and Bin Laden were believed to be close to each other, somewhere in Pakistan’s Waziristan. One Pakistani official said Bin Laden was not among the cornered militants but did not explain how he knew that.
Sultan declined to comment on casualties but a government official in the border region who asked not to be named said 15 soldiers had been killed in the fighting since Thursday. “There’s ferocious resistance but a house-to-house search has started on the outskirts of Shin Warsak,” the official said.
“We are closing in on them. Their defense seems to be dying down,” said Brig. Mehmood Shah. “Either they’ve run out of ammunition or they want to surprise us when we get closer,” he said.
