PAKISTAN: 100 Fighters Captured

Confusion over whether al-Zawahiri being protected

Saturday, March 20, 2004
(11:04 AM ET) (16:04 GMT)
The Cable News Network

Thousands of Pakistani forces have cordoned off 19 square miles (50 square kilometers) with two lines of defense. "The mission is to get these people dead or alive," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told reporters, adding there is no way for the fighters to escape. "That has been effectively sanitized. It has been cordoned and the army should not take long to flush it out." When pressed for a timetable, Sultan would only say the battle would be over "very soon."

A Pakistani military photograph shows the main hideout of suspected al Qaeda fighters in Waziristan.

Image Credit: The Cable News Network

WANA, Pakistan -- CNN
Pakistani forces have captured about 100 fighters -- possibly members of al Qaeda -- in a fierce battle in the country's mountainous border region, military officials said.

However, a Pakistani brigade commander has cast doubt on whether al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was being protected by fighters, as Pakistani officials suggested earlier.

He said it was possible al-Zawahiri was being protected, but he said al Qaeda forces could be fighting a pitched battle to protect a local criminal or gangster, who possibly escaped.

Some officials involved in the fighting said they intercepted radio transmissions that indicated the protected individual could be a Chechen or an Uzbek militant.

Pakistan's military brought journalists to Wana in southern Waziristan near the Afghan border, about six miles from the front lines of the ongoing battle with the fighters.

The military showed the journalists about 30 of the 100 captured fighters, who were in the back of a truck and blindfolded.

Officials said the fighters will be questioned to determine their nationalities and affiliations. They could be Arabs, Uzbeks, Chechens or members of local tribes, military officials said.

They said Pakistani forces cleared about eight compounds and detained the 100 fighters in those sweeps.

* Al-Zawahiri considered top al Qaeda lieutenant

(More: CNN.com / World)

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Dan