BAGRAM AIR BASE, Oct 2: The US military said on Tuesday it expected Al Qaeda to continue its “re-emergence in sanctuaries in Pakistan’s tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan”.

Sanctuary was provided to Al Qaeda and Taliban militants after Islamabad signed a peace deal with them in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally-administered areas in September 2006, a US military official claimed.

“This area remains a support and sanctuary area for the insurgency as results of those peace accords,” US Major Tim Williams, future operations intelligence planner, told journalists at the Bagram Air Field, the main US base in Afghanistan.

He said the rebels were likely to maintain their presence in those areas despite apparent efforts by Pakistani army to root them out.

“In the federally-administered tribal areas, we anticipate sanctuary in this region to continue the Al Qaeda re-emergence,” Williams said.

“What we’re looking into over the next 12 months ... is the ability and the capability of the enemy to attempt to retain the success, some of the successes, that they have had in that area.”

This “sanctuary” could shelter Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, the officer said.

Asked if there was an increased Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan, Williams said Al Qaeda operatives did not normally cross into this country to carry out operations but provided the necessary resources and training.—AFP