15 July 2004	Thursday	26 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

PESHAWAR, July 14: Pakistan has asked the United States for more intelligence to help its forces track down top Al Qaeda figures believed to be hiding near the Afghan border, a top official said on Wednesday.

Fata (security) Secretary Brig Mehmood Shah said he had no specific information about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. "We haven't got any intelligence," he told Reuters here.

"In fact, we are asking our friends, the Americans, if they have any from the satellites, because they have better capabilities. I think they have not been able to give us that."

The United States has persistently put pressure on Pakistan to do more to crush Islamic militants, and on Wednesday Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in New Delhi that Pakistan should step up its crackdown on Taliban remnants.

But in a new development that could make life more difficult for fugitive fighters, some tribesmen have turned on a group of 100 to 150 foreign militants being hunted by government troops near the village of Shakai, Mr Shah said.

"According to my information, yesterday when they (militants) were firing on the army, there was fire exchanged between the locals and those foreigners," he said. "They are now in a destabilised state." No "high value" targets were believed to be among the militants in the area, he added.

The secretary said that the group of 100 to 150 foreign fighters were holed up in mountains near Shakai, from where they were firing mortars at Pakistani forces. -Reuters