Attacks resumed on al-Qaida strongholds

Pakistani attack helicopters and artillery resumed pounding hundreds of al Qaida suspects and tribesmen besieged in mud fortresses where al Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahri is believed hiding in a Pakistani border region early today.

Up to 400 militants are believed holed up in the heavily fortified compounds in South Waziristan – a forbidding tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.