Mar 27th, 2004, 05:17 PM
NOOSE STILL TIGHTENING AGAIN!
Pakistan: al-Qaida Official Hurt, Hiding
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A senior al-Qaida leader has been seriously wounded and is on the run, Pakistan's military spokesman said Saturday, while claiming that an operation to rid the western border areas of suspected terrorists has been a success.
But observers critical of the massive military sweep called it a political failure, citing the high number of troop casualties and officials' failure to capture any so-called "high-value targets."
Recently gathered intelligence and eyewitness accounts indicate that al-Qaida commander Tahir Yuldash was badly wounded and is in hiding, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said. He admitted, though, that Pakistani forces are not close to capturing Yuldash.
"He might have slipped away, he's on the run," Sultan said.
Yuldash, also known as Tahir Yuldashev, is the leader of an Uzbek terror group — Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — which Pakistani officials say has been subsumed by al-Qaida since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
He was previously mentioned as one of two possible "high-value targets" cornered when Pakistan's military began the sweep of South Waziristan on March 16.
Yuldash and his group were responsible for repeated car bombings and kidnappings in Uzbekistan before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a U.S. State Department report said. Since then, the group has fought alongside al-Qaida and Taliban forces, the report added.
Despite the apparent escape, Sultan said the operation in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal areas had been successful. He said the military had killed 60 suspected militants and captured 163.
The army also took a militant hide-out, complete with communications equipment, underground tunnels and heavy weaponry. Sultan said the operation was in its final stages.
But the heavy casualties have led to disappointment and criticism, especially after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf stoked expectations by saying a prize capture — possibly Yuldash or al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri — was cornered.
"As a military operation, it did not go well at all," said Talat Masood, a Pakistani military and political analyst. He said that security forces had failed to expect entrenched militant forces.
The lack of preparation left some 50 soldiers and at least a dozen civilians dead, and enflamed passions among religious hard-liners.
Musharraf, a key ally of the United States, has deployed 70,000 troops along the border with Afghanistan (news - web sites) since the Sept. 11 attacks in an attempt to prevent cross-border attacks — the first such deployment since Pakistan gained independence from India in 1947.
U.S. and Afghan forces have deployed on the other side of the border as part of a new offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban forces in that country. Musharraf has said some U.S. experts are working with Pakistani troops, but no U.S. military forces have crossed into Pakistan.
Brig. Mahmood Shah, the regional security chief, said Saturday that moving Pakistani troops into the tribal areas and searching homes for suspected militants was only the first part of a larger campaign.
"This will complete the first phase of the operation, after that security forces will carry out operations wherever they get information on the presence of foreigners ... they will not be able to hide from us in Pakistan's tribal areas," Shah said.
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