Al-Qaida deputy believed cornered in Pakistan

Pakistani forces believe they have cornered and perhaps wounded Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, in a major battle near the Afghan border.

The area is also where many believe the world’s most wanted terrorist has been hiding, three senior Pakistani officials said.

Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf said a “high value” target was believed trapped in South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal belt that has resisted outside intervention for centuries.

Hundreds of troops and paramilitary rangers have pounded several fortress-like mud-brick compounds with artillery and fired on them from helicopter gunships, as entrenched suspects fought back hard. An intelligence official said “dozens” were killed yesterday.

At least 41 people – 15 soldiers and 26 suspected militants – were killed earlier this week in fighting in the area.

The officials told The Associated Press that intelligence indicated the forces had surrounded the Egyptian-born al-Zawahri in an operation that began on Tuesday.

The region has long been considered the most likely hiding place for the top two al-Qaida leaders – but there was no indication that bin Laden was with al-Zawahri. However, the two have travelled together in the past, and bin Laden and al-Zawahri appeared jointly in video tapes released shortly after the September 11 attacks on the US.

The United States has offered a $25m (€20m) reward for information leading to al-Zawahri’s capture.

Yesterday, the US Congress doubled the reward for bin Laden’s capture to $50m (€40m).

“We have been receiving intelligence and information from our agents who are working in the tribal areas that al-Zawahri could be among the people hiding there,” a Pakistani military official said. “All of our efforts are to capture him.”

An intelligence official and a senior politician in President Musharraf’s government both confirmed the account.

The intelligence official said information was also coming from some of the 18 suspects captured during yesterday’s operation. Some said during interrogation that al-Zawahri was wounded in the raid, the official said. Officials said helicopter gunships and artillery would continue attacking at dawn today.

In Wana, the main town in South Waziristan and around six miles from the fighting, residents said they heard artillery fire through the night. Army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said early today that the hunt for terror suspects was “still on”.

President Musharraf told CNN that he had spoken with the commander of Pakistani troops in the region. He said the commander reported “fierce resistance” from a group of fighters entrenched in fortress-like buildings, and that there were indications a senior figure was surrounded.

“He’s reasonably sure there’s a high-value target there,” he said. “They are not coming out in spite of the fact that we pounded them with artillery.”

Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said today that the siege was “narrowing down” and it would only be possible to identify that target when troops get closer. “They (the militants) are giving a tough contest. They have built bunkers in their homes,” he told AP.

Yesterday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced in the capital, Islamabad, that Washington was bestowing the status of “major non-Nato ally” on Pakistan, and praised the country for its help in the war on terror.

US National security adviser Condoleezza Rice told CNN that if al-Zawahri were captured, “it would be of course a major step forward in the war on terrorism, because he’s obviously an extremely important figure”.

But she warned: “I think we have to be careful not to assume that getting one al Qaida leader is going to break up the organisation.”

The 52-year-old former Egyptian surgeon is believed to be the brains behind the terror network, with bin Laden serving more as spiritual leader and financial backer.

Often seen by bin Laden’s side in videos released to Arab television networks, the doctor was also thought to serve as the al Qaida leader’s personal physician.

Al-Zawahri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad was believed behind the assassination of President Anwar Sadat during a Cairo military parade in 1981. He merged the organisation with al-Qaida in 1998.

Al-Zawahri has continued to spread his message since the September 11 attacks in audiotapes, the latest broadcast on February 24, in which he taunted President George W Bush and threatened more attacks on the US. Another tape criticised France’s decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools.

Under pressure from Washington, Pakistan has arrested more than 500 al-Qaida suspects and has turned most over to the US. The last major capture was that of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the former al-Qaida No. 3, who was caught on March 1, last year in a house near Islamabad and quickly delivered to US custody. He is being held at an undisclosed location.