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| Friday, 9 April 2004 |
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Pakistan and US-led Afghan forces gather on border for fresh Al-Qaeda offensive MIRANSHAH Thursday (AFP) Pakistan and US-led Afghan forces were positioning hundreds of troops for a new operation to hunt down Al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives on their sides of the rugged mountainous border, security officials said. The new offensive will target the tribal zone of North Waziristan, neighbouring South Waziristan, the scene of a disastrous government operation last month against 500 die-hard fighters and allied tribesmen. "There might be an operation there, we are there for this purpose," security chief for the northwest tribal areas, Brigadier Mahmood Shah, told AFP. Troops have been relocated from South Waziristan to the border district of Shawal, 20 kilometres (15 miles) from the North Waziristan capital, Miranshah. Some of the 300 fighters who escaped last month's operation are believed to have fled to near-inaccessible areas around the border district of Shawal, which lies opposite Taliban-dominated regions on the Afghan side, a senior security official said. "Some extremists and foreign militants may have escaped to North Waziristan, that is why we have relocated the forces," said the official, who did not want to be named. Two soldiers were killed in an attack on an army post in Shawal in March. An intelligence official said around 400 troops were stationed at Dandakhel district east of Shawal. The forested and mountainous Shawal district is inhabited by the fiercely independent Walai tribe. Intelligence sources said that in the past key Al-Qaeda leaders were believed to had taken refuge in the region. Pakistani forces suffered heavy casualties in their biggest ever operation against Al-Qaeda-linked militants in South Waziristan last month. The operation claimed the lives of at least 46 troops, 15 civilians and 63 militants. Some 166 militants - including 93 Pakistani tribesmen - were captured, but no high value targets were among them. The rest slipped through the military dragnet. US-led Afghan forces have been deployed in southeastern Afghanistan to hunt Al-Qaeda fighters fleeing the Pakistani military operation. "A large number of coalition and Afghan troops have been stationed along the Afghan-Pakistan border - from Chamkanai to Shkin," Khost military commander General Khial Baz Khan told AFP. The largest number of troops are stationed in Chamkanai and Mangratai, two small towns just kilometres from the Pakistani border in Khost and Paktika provinces respectively, Khan said. Khan added that troops under his command in southeastern Khost province were on high alert as hundreds of Pakistani soldiers arrived for a new Taliban and Al-Qaeda hunt on their side of the border. "Our troops in Khost are on high alert to deal with Taliban and al-Qaeda members if they enter Afghanistan," the commander said. Another official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that US-led troops and Afghan forces had established a new base in Mangratai, a small town about three kilometres from the Pakistan border between Lwara, where Afghan and US forces have a base, and Urgun's US-led military base. Lwara base, also on the Afghan Pakistan border, was established in March to prevent Taliban and Al-Qaeda infiltration into Afghan territory. According to the officials, the new movements are aimed at preventing Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Pakistani operations coming into Afghanistan. Meanwhile a suspected top Taliban commander has been arrested in an affluent Kabul neighbourhood by Afghan police, a senior official told AFP. Abdul Hadi, who commanded the hardliners' forces in northern Afghanistan until late 2001, was arrested on Tuesday, Deputy Interior Minister General Hilaludin Hilal said. "Hadi was arrested (and found with) with four AK-47 machine guns, a long distance radio and documents indicating he was involved in several terror incidents," Hilal said, without elaborating. Hadi was a former commander for the Hezb-i-Islami fundamentalist faction of wanted warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar but later joined the Taliban movement, Hilal said. Hilal said that the arrest was jointly conducted with the NATO-led peacekeepers, but International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Commander Chris Henderson said this was not the case. |
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