March 19, 2004

ISLAMABAD: Thousands of Pakistani troops have met fierce resistance from fighters who could be protecting Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri in a tribal village near the Afghan border, the military said.

"The militants appear to be well dug-in in mud fortresses. They appear to be determined to fight till the end," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.

The fighters were using mortars and small arms, Sultan said.

President Pervez Musharraf told CNN Thursday night that a "high-value target" was probably being protected by the heavily armed fighters, who have been battling Pakistani forces since Tuesday in remote Kalushah village, some 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the border with Afghanistan in South Waziristan tribal district.

Officials said the level of resistance suggested they could be protecting al-Qaeda number two, Egyptian born physician Ayman al-Zawahri.

A top security official in the area told AFP that the suspicion emerged after Tuesday's initial encounter, the bloodiest so far, which left 15 troops and 24 militants dead and around a dozen troops missing.

He said an apparently bullet-proof four-wheel-drive land cruiser, carrying a foreigner, sped away when paramilitary forces raided one house. Two other vehicles quickly came between the first vehicle and the troops.

Dozens of fighters then emerged from several directions, hurled grenades and fired at the troops incessantly.

"We haven't seen a bullet-proof vehicle in the area before and the theory is that it was carrying a high profile Al-Qaeda leader, possibly Zawahiri," the security official, who could not be identified, told AFP.

Sultan insisted the talk that Zawahari was involved was "conjecture."

"It was just an assessment, based on the kind of resistance that we were facing, that probably some high value target was there. We can't say who this is," he said.

"It's just conjecturing."

After being taken by surprise Tuesday, thousands of army and paramilitary troops backed by helicopter gunships resumed the assault Thursday, targeting an area several square kilometers (miles) in size.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/76189/1/.html