US and British special forces have cornered Al-Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden in a mountainous area in northwest Pakistan, near
the Afghanistan border, it was reported.
Quoting "a US intelligence source," the Sunday Express
newspaper said bin Laden and "up to 50 fanatical henchmen" were
inside an area 16 kilometers (10 miles) wide and deep "north of the
town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta".
"He is boxed in," the unidentified source was quoted by the
tabloid 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 one month ago from another
area 240 kilometers to the south, the Sunday Express
said.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is believed to be with bin
Laden, it said.
The area is under surveillance from a geostationary spy
satellite while US and British special forces await orders to move
in, the newspaper said in its early edition, received late
Saturday.
Al-Qaeda is held responsible for the September 11 attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people
in 2001. More recently, it has been suspected of supporting
insurgent attacks on US forces in Iraq.
On Thursday, General Richard Meyers, chairman of the US joint
chiefs of staff, said US forces were engaged in "intense" efforts
to capture bin Laden, but held back from saying where he might be
hiding.
"There are areas where we think it is most likely he is, and
they remain the same," said Meyers, who was speaking to reporters
in Washington. "They haven't changed in months," said Myers.
Asked whether the Al-Qaeda leader was believed to be in
Pakistan, the general replied: "Don't know that. We think in that
border region somewhere. We don't know where it is precisely."
The Sunday Express said it was also told in London by
"a senior Republican close to the White House and the Pentagon"
this past week that bin Laden had been located.
"They have found bin Laden," the source -- described as an
"intimate" of the family of US President George W. Bush -- was
quoted as saying. "They now know where he is within a manageable
area which can be watched and controlled."
The Sunday Express said bin Laden's whereabouts had
been discovered from "a combination of CIA paramilitaries and
special forces, plus image analysis by geographers and soil
experts".
"They studied the background in bin Laden's last video and
matched it to rocks in the Toba Kakar region," the newspaper
said.
"A two-man special forces surveillance unit them infiltrated the
area," it said, adding that they picked up their first clues that
bin Laden was in the area within a week.
"Other teams then slipped in," the Sunday Express
quoted its source as saying. "To avoid any alert, helicopters were
not used."
The last known video tape from bin Laden was aired in September
by the Arabic all-news television station al-Jazeera. Three audio
tapes followed, in October, December and January.
A graphic published alongside the Sunday Express report
indicated that the area in which bin Laden is supposedly hiding is
immediately to the north of the Pakistani towns of Khanozai and
Murgha.
(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2004)