Finding bin Laden the next challenge

15 Nov, 2001 02:15 AM3 mins to read

11.45 am - By KIM SENGUPTA

In his latest highly publicised interview, Osama bin Laden declared that he was ready to die.

The US and Britain would, of course, like to help out, but finding him is the biggest problem they face.

Western intelligence agencies have received reports that bin Laden and his chief lieutenants in the al Qaeda network may have fled over the border into Pakistan to be sheltered by Pashtun supporters and protected by sympathisers in the secret service, InterServices Intelligence.

The reports, which are unconfirmed, opens a can of worms. On one hand, Pakistan is supposedly a firm ally in the so-called global war against terrorism, and thus bin Laden should now be in the grasp of the US.

But in reality the remit of General Pervez Musharraf's regime does not run deep in the tribal frontier areas, and finding and capturing him will not be easy. A Western operation against him is also high-risk in the currently volatile political situation in Pakistan.

Nor are Americans and British likely to get much intelligence help. The perception among senior military officials in Washington and London now is that not only has the ISI, which helped create the Taleban, been unhelpful, but they have actually passed on information to the enemy.

Yesterday the Northern Alliance claimed that Pakistani planes had airlifted Pakistani and Arab al Qaeda fighters from the northern city of Konduz, the scene of heavy fighting.

If bin Laden and his followers are still in Afghanistan then the situation becomes a lot easier. With the sudden and spectacular collapse of the Taleban, the allies can concentrate a large part of their resources in hunting them down.

US and British special forces are actively engaged in pursuing leads about the al Qaeda in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar as well as in the hills northeast of Kabul.

One of the more intense searches has taken place in the Paktia province and near Jalalabad.

According to senior military sources bin Laden and his coterie have been reported to be constantly on the move.

"We have been receiving information, but this has not come to us on time to do anything in the past", said an official.

Taleban forces who have switched sides are being questioned to glean information about whereabouts of al Qaeda as are those taken prisoner by the opposition.

Military commanders believe that some members of the al Qaeda leadership had been killed in US airstrikes using bunker-busting bombs on caves and underground complexes in the south and the central highlands.

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday "The first priority remains the tracking down of the leadership in al Qaeda and Taleban. The second priority is destroying the Taleban and al Qaeda military capability, which is what is propping up that leadership, tracking it down, finding it. And destroying it."

- INDEPENDENT

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