PAKISTAN has denied any knowledge of al-Qaeda terror network leader Osama bin Laden being cornered by US and British special forces in a mountainous area in the northwest of the country. Britain’s Sunday Express newspaper quoting "a US intelligence source" said bin Laden and "up to 50 fanatical henchmen" were inside an area 16km wide "north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta". Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said bin Laden had not been "boxed in".
| Maybe Sheikh Rashid doesn't know? Maybe it was supposed to be a surprise? |
"I do not have any such information," he said.
| If you're the information minister you're supposed to know this stuff... |
"He is boxed in," the unidentified source was quoted as saying, adding that US special forces were "absolutely confident" that he could not escape. According to the source, bin Laden moved into the area, "in the desolate Toba Kakar mountains", about a month ago from another area 240km to the south, the Sunday Express said. In Washington, a Defence Department spokesman declined to comment. Pakistan has stepped up security near the rugged border with Afghanistan ahead of new operations aimed at cornering Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, Pakistani intelligence sources said yesterday. Bin Laden was not the immediate target of the operation, they said. |