ISLAMABAD, 10 December 2004 — Sustained army operations in a tribal region near the Afghan border have put Al-Qaeda-linked extremists on the run and crippled their ability to strike, a Pakistani general said yesterday.
“They are trying to get out (of the region) and unable to plan attacks,” Maj. Gen. Niaz Khattak, field commander of troops hunting the insurgents, told reporters at a briefing in the northwestern garrison town of Kohat.
He said the offensives against extremists since March this year in the South Waziristan tribal region had disrupted their command structure. “They are moving out of the operation zone,” the field commander was quoted as saying by AFP.
His assessment was based on communications intercepted by security forces. The information suggested the extremists were in disarray and unable to maintain frequent contact between themselves.
Khattak insisted the security forces had no information on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. “I have got no lead about his presence in the area.”
He said Uzbek leader Tahir Yuldashev, who was wounded during a military operation in March, could still be hiding in the region. Yuldashev, the tall and stocky leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), dramatically escaped a military siege of his hideout in mid-March this year. He was reportedly wounded in a Pakistan Army attack but has eluded the troops since then.
Security forces were also searching for a one-legged ex-Guantanamo prisoner Abdullah Mahsud for kidnapping two Chinese engineers in October, he added. One of the hostages died during the rescue bid.
Khattak said the authorities would not negotiate with Mahsud unless he “surrenders unconditionally” and his foreign accomplices register themselves.
The field commander said security forces had smashed terrorist training camps in South Waziristan but would remain there until local tribes are able to defend themselves.
Khattak said around 200 Pakistani troops had died in the military operation against Al-Qaeda-linked extremists and their local supporters since March. Some 350 extremists have been killed during the same period.
The field commander’s assessment comes two days after President Pervez Musharraf made similar claims that security forces have all but eliminated Al-Qaeda from the rugged region and assaults on the network outposts have yielded impressive results.
“We have cleaned them up from the mountains. We have broken the back of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and I say this with total conviction and authority,” he said during his visit to London.
“They are on the run, their control structure is broken, their bases smashed,” he said, adding that Pakistani forces had detained more than 600 Al-Qaeda terrorists.
— With input from Agence France Presse
