NEW YORK, Oct 14: American Special Forces may stage a commando raid inside Afghanistan this week, Newsweek reported on Sunday.

Such an operation, the magazine says, would, however, likely be limited to gathering intelligence, not trying to kill or capture Osama bin Laden.

According to the magazine, senior military officials say they are pessimistic about the success of a drawn-out military campaign. The top brass is worried that the military is being asked to do a job that requires not just brute force but skilful diplomacy and cunning spying, not to mention a large dose of luck.

Speaking privately to fellow officers not long after the Sept 11 attacks, General Anthony Zinni (retired), the former head of the Central Command, bluntly stated:”I hope the military isn’t given this to solve.” And in the days immediately after the terror attacks, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld privately grumbled that the military was unable to come up with a creative battle plan.

War councils seemed to drone on endlessly without fresh thinking. At one point, Rumsfeld joked that the operation, then known as Infinite Justice, should be renamed “Infinite Meetings.”

One of the best ways to find Osama may be a well-placed bribe. “It was said by the Brits that only two things move the tribal leaders — religion and money,” a former high-ranking Pakistan military officer tells Newsweek. “I would reverse the order.” The CIA is reportedly trying to payoff local war lords to turn against the Taliban and guide the Americans to Osama’s lair.And a diplomatic source, with intimate knowledge of Afghan affairs, told the magazine that some tribal leaders were demanding titles and power as well as cash. “They’re saying, ‘I can get Osama if I can be governor of this or that province after it’s all over,” says the diplomat. “Washington’s problem is: how do you deal with people who are mostly a bunch of pirates?”

If Osama is spotted, small units of highly-trained special forces can be inserted nearby, in the next phase of the campaign. And though the Pentagon is being tightlipped about the movement of these warriors, some operators are probably already stationed at remote bases along the Afghan border in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, as well as aboard the carrier Kitty Hawk in the Arabian Sea, the magazine said.

But some Pentagon officials told Newsweek that they were concerned that Osama was not hiding in a cave but in the squalid slums of a city like Kandahar.

Lacking its own “assets,” among the Afghans, the CIA will almost surely need the help of Pakistan intelligence service, the ISI. But knowledgeable US officials say they have been disappointed with the information provided by the ISI, which had a hand in training Taliban and presumably al- Qaeda fighters, but now can’t seem to find them.

A senior Pakistan official told Newsweek that his leaders were reluctant to become deeply involved in a proxy war until they had a clearer picture of what might follow the Taliban regime. To that end, a top US administration official told the magazine that Washington was prepared to fill a “political vacuum” if the Taliban collapsed. There was talk of bringing back Afghanistan’s exiled king, Zahir Shah, who has been living in Rome.