U.S. troops to join pursuit in Pakistan

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Friday, April 26, 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. government personnel are searching for al-Qaida fighters in the rugged tribal regions of northwest Pakistan, and the American military is set to send in troops to join the hunt, officials said Thursday.

The United States and Pakistan reached an agreement several weeks ago allowing American military operations on Pakistani soil, U.S. officials said. This will allow Americans to hunt in a suspected al-Qaida haven previously closed to them -- tribal areas that are traditional rallying points for fighters fleeing Afghanistan.

The operations carry considerable risk, physically for the Americans and politically for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who faces a referendum Tuesday to extend his term as president for five years. He has defied strong anti-American sentiment to support President Bush in countering terrorism.

Pakistan's tribal belt is ruled by deeply conservative and fiercely independent tribesmen who swear little allegiance to anyone but their tribal elders and to laws laid out by tradition and the tenets of Islam.

Publicly, Islamabad denied any knowledge of U.S. operations.

"No U.S. personnel are present in Pakistan's tribal areas searching for al-Qaida men," Aziz Ahmad Khan, spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, said.

Quiet operation

But Pakistani intelligence and Interior Ministry sources said civilian U.S. officials, with the help of Pakistani authorities, are quietly working in the areas to trace the remnants of al-Qaida.

The Pakistani army moves softly in this region. Large madrassas -- religious schools -- flourish, and fiercely anti-American and pro-Taliban religious parties have large followings.

The parties' flags fly from rooftops, above slogans scribbled on walls that say "death to America" and "Long live Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden," referring to the Taliban and al-Qaida leaders.

The tribal areas are just over the border from Afghanistan's Paktia and Paktika provinces, where bin Laden has been and where much of al-Qaida was based before the war in Afghanistan. U.S., Canadian and British forces have conducted operations in those provinces.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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