Al-Qaeda chief evades trap

Cobra attack helicopters swooped into the battle zone in the remote region of South Waziristan where up to 500 militant fighters were putting up fierce resistance holed up in mud fortresses. Although US operatives believe Osama bin Laden’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, may be trapped, Pakistani officials last night said it was unlikely he was still among those surrounded.

Many civilians had last night taken refuge in the regions’s main town, Wana, but there were signs that the battle was not far behind them with loud explosions and gunfire heard in Gangikhel village.

Pakistan’s interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat, sought to reassure angry local tribes hostile to the military action that everything was being done to protect the civilian population and that they hoped the operation would end today. "We are trying to avoid collateral damage to the civilian population. It might take some time," he said.

But local people have denounced the army operation as heavy-handed and against the centuries-old traditions in the semi-autonomous tribal region, which has fiercely resisted outside occupation, whether by Afghan rulers, British colonialists or Pakistani army troops.

At the Rehman Medical Complex in Wana two sisters - Haseena, 10, and Asmeena, two - received first aid after being struck by shrapnel. The girls’ 12-year-old brother, Din Mohammed, was killed when a shell landed near their house in the village of Kaga Panga.

"We were eating lunch and all of a sudden the shelling began and it hit our courtyard," Haseena said, her face bandaged. "I loved my brother a lot. What did we do to deserve this?"

The offensive is the biggest Pakistan has fought since it joined the US-led war on terror after the September 11 attacks. "There was no pause in the firing," a resident of Wana said. "Our houses were shaking."

Hardline Islamic clerics and Pashtun tribe leaders have denounced the attacks, warning they could breed terror strikes. Dozens of students in the town of Dera Ismail Khan protested against them yesterday.

"The government has made this drama for the benefit of the USA," said protester Sherbaz Ansari. "The result is the tribal people have suffered. We are sure there are no terrorists in our area, no al-Qaeda."

By yesterday Pakistan’s military had arrested more than 100 suspects. The detainees include foreigners and the local Pashtun tribesmen who have been sheltering them, said Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, who is in charge of the sweep.

Hussain said 400 to 500 militants are believed to still be fighting from within the heavily fortified compounds in the South Waziristan region, using mortars, AK-47s, rockets and hand-grenades in a face-off with troops. "These people have been here for a long, long time. They are extremely professional fighters," he said. "They have tremendous patience before they open fire."

The military showed journalists 40 prisoners, all blindfolded and with their hands tied, who were sitting under heavy guard in an army truck in Wana. Many had thick beards and some had black tape around their blindfolds to ensure they stayed on.

Hussain said troops were convinced the compounds held a "high-value" target, but he said they had no confirmation the man was al-Zawahiri, a doctor who is believed to be the brains behind al-Qaeda’s operations. He said the level of resistance made it likely an important figure was still inside, although he didn’t rule out the possibility someone might have escaped.

"I would not rule out any possibility, but with this level of resistance, even after 48 hours [of the latest bombardment], I believe the high-value target is still there," he said.

Hussain said a Chechen fighter was arrested on Friday with a book on chemistry and explosives. He said he suspected a large number of the militants were foreigners, but that others were members of the Pakistani Yargul Khel tribe.

"I’m determined to punish this tribe and make them an example for the entire South Waziristan agency," Hussain said.

Brig Mahmood Shah, the chief of security for tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan, said some of the prisoners had already been taken for interrogation to the provincial capital, Peshawar.

Security officials said the men included Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and ethnic Uighurs from China’s predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province, where a separatist movement is simmering. No senior al-Qaeda leaders were believed to be among them, but authorities hoped they would provide a better picture of the terrorists’ heavily fortified lair.

An Afghan intelligence official with connections in Pakistan’s tribal region also said that al-Zawahiri was believed to be in the area of the Pakistan operation.

Osama bin Laden is believed to be further north, in North Waziristan, across from the region of the Afghan border city of Khost, he said. There was no firm intelligence on the terror chief’s exact location, however.

A Pakistan army spokesman said the Pakistani forces were joined by "a dozen or so" American intelligence agents in the ongoing operation. There have been unconfirmed reports that up to 100 British SAS soldiers were also taking part in the operation. The spokesman put the number of troops killed in the operation at 17. But other officials said many more had died and about a dozen soldiers were feared taken hostage.