Frustrating chase for phantoms in shadow of Hindu Kush

KANDAHAR - Waziristan, where Pakistani forces have been engaged in fierce fighting, has become the focus of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the remnants of al Qaeda after they retreated from Afghanistan.

The 26,000 sq km of rugged hills and valleys in the shadow of the Hindu Kush has also become a haven for Taleban fighters who have launched a new offensive back across the Afghan border.

President George W. Bush's pledge five years ago that the United States would hunt down bin Laden and his senior lieutenants has not produced cogent results, necessitating raids.

Yesterday's attack was just the latest in a series by Pakistani forces. Although several hundred lives have been lost, no significant figure in the insurgency has been apprehended.

The Pakistani Army said that militants killed in another operation last Wednesday included Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Afghans. However, the bulk of the armed opposition has come from Pashtun fighters with allegiance to the influential Islamic cleric Maulana Abdul Khaliq Haqqani, whose headquarters were among the Government's targets.

Many of the Taleban forces, fellow Pashtuns, got their initial grounding in arms in Waziristan and pictures of one of their greatest heroes, Nek Mohammed, who was killed by a US missile, are sold in the local bazaars.

Bin Laden and 200 of his followers are believed to have found sanctuary in the region in 2002. It took Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf two years to mount an operation against al Qaeda and its allies after intense pressure from the US. Tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers were sent in, paid for by the US Government, in an attempt to crush al Qaeda and the Taleban and stop them from crossing back into Afghanistan to attack American troops.

But cross-border infiltration continued and al Qaeda and the Taleban are believed to have set up elaborate defences and escape routes among the caves and tunnels. Pakistani forces have produced pictures of what they claim to be an al Qaeda command control centre with factories for producing explosive devices and where bomb-makers were trained. It contained fax machines, telephones, financial records and even video equipment for making propaganda films.

Pakistani forces have demolished homes, sealed off businesses, seized vehicles and dismissed from government posts tribesmen they accuse of non-cooperation.

- INDEPENDENT