Al Qaeda and Taliban Remnants Targeted
By John Lancaster and Kamran Khan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 23, 2004; 12:00 AM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 22 -- Under heavy pressure from Washington, Pakistani army and paramilitary troops are preparing for a major new assault against al Qaeda and Taliban remnants in the rugged border region of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, two senior Pakistani officials said Sunday.
While Pakistan has launched such operations before, this one will rely heavily on U.S.-supplied intelligence and will be closely coordinated with U.S. forces operating just across the border in Afghanistan, the officials said. The area has long been a focal point of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri.
"Pakistan army contingents are ready to coordinate an expected American sweep against terrorist hideouts along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan," said a senior Pakistani intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The decision on the timing of this operation is with the Americans."
In a related development, troops from Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps are preparing to launch a "cordon and search" operation aimed at flushing out al Qaeda fugitives in South Waziristan, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal "agencies" along the border with Afghanistan, according to Mohammad Azam Khan, who administers South Waziristan on behalf of the federal government.
On Friday, local authorities warned that tribesmen found to be sheltering such fugitives would be imprisoned for seven years and their tribes fined about $17,800 under a colonial-era doctrine of "collective responsibility," Khan said in a telephone interview from the agency capital of Wana.
"It's a mopping-up job," said Khan, who estimated that al Qaeda fugitives in South Waziristan number in the "dozens."
Over the last two years, Pakistan has deployed about 50,000 troops along its mountainous 1,400-mile border with Afghanistan as part of a nationwide dragnet that has captured about 500 al Qaeda fugitives since Sept. 11, 2001.
But as the hunt for bin Laden has dragged into its third year, and Taliban fighters operating from the border region have stepped up their attacks on U.S. and Afghan government forces in southeastern Afghanistan, the United States has increased the pressure on Pakistan to do more. Now those efforts appear to be bearing fruit.
In a speech to religious leaders last week, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, urged tribal leaders in the border area to hand over al Qaeda and Taliban fighters seeking shelter in their midst. He warned that if Pakistani forces fail to secure the area, "there is a real threat" that U.S. forces could violate Pakistan's sovereignty and attack "Pakistani areas being used to launch terrorism in Afghanistan."
As a sweetener, Musharraf said that tribesmen found to be harboring foreign militants "will not be handed over to any other country."
The Pakistani military has traditionally steered clear of the tribal areas, where support for the Taliban and al Qaeda is deep, especially among the ethnically homogeneous Pashtun population that straddles both sides of the border. Since January 2002, when Pakistani forces first ventured into the area, about 40 army officers and soldiers have been killed in clashes with Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. Lt. Gen. David Barno, the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, last week praised Pakistan for invigorating operations that "show the greatest promise we have seen in a while."
The forthcoming operation, Pakistani security officials said, will focus on a broad swath of territory in North West Frontier Province that includes the tribal areas of South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Mohmand Agency, Khyber Agency and Oarakzai Agency. Another tribal agency in the province, Kurram, is not thought to be especially hospitable to al Qaeda because it is dominated by members of the minority Shiite Muslim population.
South Waziristan has been the focus of considerable activity since early January, when local authorities confronted tribal elders with a demand for the handover of 82 tribesmen suspected of harboring foreign fighters. The ultimatum proved effective: Over the last 25 days, 49 of the tribesmen have been taken into custody, said Khan, the agency administrator, or political agent. Six homes belonging to the suspect tribesmen were demolished.
In the coming days, Khan said, paramilitary forces backed by army troops will begin search operations in the area on the basis of "real-time intelligence" on the whereabouts of foreign fighters and their local hosts, he said.
Khan reported from Karachi. |
