LONDON,
February 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. and British
special forces have cornered Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a
mountainous area in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, a
British paper reported Sunday, February 22.
Quoting
a “U.S. intelligence source”, British daily Sunday Express
said Bin Laden and “up to 50 fanatical henchmen” were inside an
area 16 kilometers (10 miles) wide and deep “north of the town of
Khanozai and the city of Quetta”, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
“He
is boxed in,” the unidentified source was quoted by the paper as
saying, adding that U.S. special forces were “absolutely
confident” that he could not escape.
According
to the source, Bin Laden moved into the area, “in the desolate Toba
Kakar mountains”, about one month ago from another area 240
kilometers to the south.
Taliban
leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is believed to be with Bin Laden,
according to the report.
The
area is under surveillance from a geostationary spy satellite while
U.S and British special forces await orders to move in.
‘Geographers’
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Bin Laden has eluded U.S. capture so far (AFP)
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The
Sunday Express said Bin Laden's whereabouts had been discovered
from a “combination of CIA paramilitaries and special forces, plus
image analysis by geographers and soil experts”.
“They
studied the background in bin Laden's last video and matched it to
rocks in the Toba Kakar region,” the newspaper said.
“A
two-man special forces surveillance unit infiltrated the area,” it
said, adding that they picked up their first clues that Bin Laden was
in the area within a week.
“Other
teams then slipped in,” the paper quoted its source as saying. “To
avoid any alert, helicopters were not used.”
The
Sunday Express said it was also told in London by a “senior
Republican close to the White House and the Pentagon” this past week
that Bin Laden had been located.
“They
have found Bin Laden,” the source -- described as an “intimate”
of the family of U.S. President George W. Bush -- was quoted as
saying.
“They
now know where he is within a manageable area which can be watched and
controlled.”
On
Thursday, February 19, General Richard Meyers, chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces were engaged in “intense”
efforts to capture bin Laden, but held back from saying where he might
be hiding.
“There
are areas where we think it is most likely he is, and they remain the
same,” said Meyers, who was speaking to reporters in Washington.
“They
haven't changed in months,” said Myers.
Asked
whether the Al-Qaeda leader was believed to be in Pakistan, the
general replied: “Don't know that. We think in that border region
somewhere. We don't know where it is precisely.”
‘Nonsense’
But
a Pakistani political expert dismissed as “nonsense” U.S. claims
that rocks and soil helped in locating the whereabouts of Bin Laden.
Speaking
to IslamOnline.net over the phone from the Pakistani capital
Islamabad, the expert, who requested anonymity, said Bin Laden keeps
moving from one place to another.
However,
he said it is very much likely that Bin Laden is hiding along the
Pakistani borders with Afghanistan, which stretch some 1200km, adding
that his hiding could be located via satellites and Taliban’s
opponents.
The
expert also said it is impossible to place the drawn-out borders under
close scrutiny either from the Pakistani army or Afghan authorities.
He
added that Pakistan had denied reports that U.S. Marines were
operating in a Pakistani soil, noting that U.S. troops were not
allowed into the country at least publicly to head off a public
uprising.
The
U.S. accuses Al-Qaeda of being behind the September 11 attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people in
2001.
More
recently, the U.S. administration has also accused it of supporting
attacks on U.S. forces occupying Iraq.
The
last known video tape from Bin Laden was aired in September 2003 by
the Arabic all-news television station Aljazeera. Three audio tapes
followed, in October, December 2003 and January 2004.
