Top terror suspects may have escaped tribal fortress through secret tunnel
March 22, 2004
WANA, Pakistan (AP) - Top al-Qaida terrorists may have escaped a siege involving thousands of Pakistani soldiers through several secret tunnels leading from mud fortresses to a dry mountain stream near the border with Afghanistan, a security chief said Monday.
The longest tunnel found so far was more than two kilometres long and led from the homes of two local men - Nek Mohammed and Sharif Khan - to a stream near the frontier, said Brig. Mahmood Shah, head of security for Pakistan's tribal regions.
"There is a possibility that the tunnel may have been used at the start of the operation," Shah told journalists in Peshawar, the provincial capital.
Three senior officials have told AP that they believe al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri may be at the site, although the government has repeatedly said it does not know who is inside. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that a "high-value" target was likely involved.
The militants may have used the tunnel to escape during the disastrous first day of the operation on March 16, when at least 15 soldiers were killed in fierce fighting. Still, Lt.-Gen. Safdar Hussain, the commander of the operation, said over the weekend that authorities believe an important terrorist remains inside, based on the level of resistance of the holdouts.
Pakistan's military said it was conducting DNA tests to identify six suspected foreign terrorists killed in the fighting, but would not elaborate on whether they included any important terror figure.
Five bodies of what appeared to be 25- to 30-year-old men were displayed to journalists at a military mortuary in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, late Sunday. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian surgeon, is 52 years old.
The bodies were laid out on stretchers and in open coffins in bloodied clothes.
Military officials said they were all foreigners, but it was impossible for journalists to determine their nationality. They said the sixth body had decomposed and that it would have been inhumane to show it.
"At this moment, whatever information we have about the tests we would not like to give out until we are 200 per cent sure who they are," army spokesman Maj.-Gen. Shaukat Sultan told a press conference.
March 22, 2004
WANA, Pakistan (AP) - Top al-Qaida terrorists may have escaped a siege involving thousands of Pakistani soldiers through several secret tunnels leading from mud fortresses to a dry mountain stream near the border with Afghanistan, a security chief said Monday.
The longest tunnel found so far was more than two kilometres long and led from the homes of two local men - Nek Mohammed and Sharif Khan - to a stream near the frontier, said Brig. Mahmood Shah, head of security for Pakistan's tribal regions.
"There is a possibility that the tunnel may have been used at the start of the operation," Shah told journalists in Peshawar, the provincial capital.
Three senior officials have told AP that they believe al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri may be at the site, although the government has repeatedly said it does not know who is inside. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that a "high-value" target was likely involved.
The militants may have used the tunnel to escape during the disastrous first day of the operation on March 16, when at least 15 soldiers were killed in fierce fighting. Still, Lt.-Gen. Safdar Hussain, the commander of the operation, said over the weekend that authorities believe an important terrorist remains inside, based on the level of resistance of the holdouts.
Pakistan's military said it was conducting DNA tests to identify six suspected foreign terrorists killed in the fighting, but would not elaborate on whether they included any important terror figure.
Five bodies of what appeared to be 25- to 30-year-old men were displayed to journalists at a military mortuary in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, late Sunday. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian surgeon, is 52 years old.
The bodies were laid out on stretchers and in open coffins in bloodied clothes.
Military officials said they were all foreigners, but it was impossible for journalists to determine their nationality. They said the sixth body had decomposed and that it would have been inhumane to show it.
"At this moment, whatever information we have about the tests we would not like to give out until we are 200 per cent sure who they are," army spokesman Maj.-Gen. Shaukat Sultan told a press conference.
