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Pakistan Informed Ahead Of Al-Zawahiri Strike
Karachi, 17 Jan. (AKI) - (Syed Saleem Shahzad) - US intelligence officials had reliable information about a gathering of senior al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders in Pakistan's Bajour district and shared it with Islamabad before last Friday's air strike which killed 18 people, says a top Pakistani intelligence official. The official told Adnkronos International(AKI) there was authentic information about a meeting of senior personnel, but it was conjecture that those present included al-Qaeda number 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Taliban leader Mullah Omar. There have been widespread anti-US protests in Pakistan over the raid and no word on al-Zawahiri's fate. Details have emerged in the media suggesting that the air strike targeting al-Zawahiri - the Egyptian doctor and lieutenant to Osama bin Laden - failed because he did not show up for a dinner he was invited to marking the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha. In the pre-dawn raid on the remote village of Damadola, three houses and a school were destroyed by missiles fired from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. Eighteen civilians, including six children, were killed. The raids triggered two days of anti-US protests throughout Pakistan. The foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador for an explanation and information minister Sheikh Rashid condemned the attack. Considered Osama bin Laden's mentor, al-Zawahiri is at the heart of the al-Qaida leadership, and Washington is offering a 25 million dollar bounty for his capture. AKI sources revealed there was authentic information on the gathering in Bajour district of high- profile Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders who recently fled from Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. The catalyst for the CIA raid on Bajour Agency - news of which was supplied to Islamabad well in advance - was information gathered by a joint intelligence unit of Pakistani-US operators based in Islamabad, who exchanged hand-delivered notes, on a daily basis. The Islamabad unit provides a centralised daily monitoring report on Pakistan-Afghan border areas, based on information from Pakistani agencies nationwide. The US contributes report on al-Qaeda and Taliban activities, and the security situation in the border provinces of Afghanistan. Sources told AKI that for the past few weeks, there had been an upsurge in activities in the eastern Kunar province, and the US intelligence partners were reporting that Kunar had become a centre for al-Qaeda members. Previously, a corridor had been traced which started from Kunar and ended at Chitral in Pakistan, as a probable route frequently used by leaders such as Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and Afghan resistance leader Gulbadin Hikmatyar. The use of the Kunar-Chitral route was confirmed by leading al-Qaeda militant Abu al Faraj al-Libbi when he was interrogated after his arrest in North West Frontier Province last June. Raids have since been conducted but failed to yield any 'big fish'. Bajour is on the edge of that corridor and there is a passage which connects Kunar from Bajour. This has made Bajour a suspect region, where joint ISI-FBI teams have conducted raids in past but failed to net any high profile al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders. AKI's sources said that a recent dispatch from the US side confirmed a movement of Arab-Afghans towards the Pakistani side. As the Chittral area was fully manned by the Pakistan Army, joint intelligence believes those Arab-Afghans entered Bajour. Earlier it was also suspected that along with the Arab fighters there was a high profile Afghan personality, maybe Mullah Omar or Gulbadin Hikmatyar. The dispatch clearly mentioned that if the suspects were spotted, they would be targeted immediately. Though last Fridayâs attack was the first such incident in Bajour since US forces invaded Afghanistan at the end of 2001, it was the second incident in which Pakistani villagers have been attacked from across the border in under a week. Eight people were killed in an alleged US gunship rocket attack on a house in the North Waziristan Agency on 6 January. Posted by: Steve 2006-01-17 |
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