KABUL/ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Osama bin Laden's whereabouts remain a mystery to US and Pakistani forces as they crank up efforts to flush out Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters hiding near Afghanistan's eastern frontier, officials said on Monday.
US military officials in Kabul have boldly predicted his capture in 2004, and Britain's Sunday Express weekly reported that the world's most wanted man was "boxed in" by US and British special forces in the rugged Pakistani mountains along the Afghan border.
The newspaper said Osama was within a 10 mile by 10 mile area, being monitored by a US spy satellite. "As far as the reports of Osama bin Laden's location, I don't take much credence in them because if we knew where he was in Afghanistan, we would go get him and if the Pakistanis knew where he was in Pakistan they would go get him," US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty said.
"We continue to have rumours over the past two years," he told a news briefing in Kabul, when asked about speculation that Osama had been spotted. Pakistani officials dismissed the report that located Osama in mountains north of the Pakistani city of Quetta.
"That area is in Pakistan but there is nothing there, life is absolutely normal - you can go and see," said Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. "There is no operation being conducted there and there are no foreign troops there."
NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUALS: Hilferty distanced himself from recent remarks he made that he was "sure" Osama and Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar would be caught this year, reverting to past US statements that the "war on terror" was not only about catching individuals.
"Obviously the global war on terrorism is about much more than a person or two people, it is about terrorism against people in general," he said. He also indicated that a planned spring offensive against militants was little different from previous operations carried out by the 10,600-strong American-led force in Afghanistan.
Most operations have failed to net large numbers of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters or top leaders, prompting US officers in Afghanistan to announce a shift in tactics to civilian-military teams deploying in lawless regions to oversee reconstruction.
In Pakistan, Gen Sultan described an operation in the semi-autonomous South Waziristan agency, where Al Qaeda fighters are thought to be hiding with the support of sympathetic locals, as "absolutely normal".
Pakistani troops working alongside tribal forces plan to carry out searches where they suspect Al Qaeda guerillas may be hiding, after tribesmen were urged by the authorities to give up militants they may be sheltering.
"This cordon and search operation will specifically be against foreigners whenever we get any information that X,Y,Z is in that house," said South Waziristan's top government official, Mohammad Azam Khan.
"The tribal maliks (chiefs) would be present and the whole operation would be conducted according to the rules and traditions of the tribal area," he told a private television channel.
Political authorities which deal with the fiercely independent and well-armed tribesmen have asked tribal leaders to surrender more than 80 clan members wanted for harbouring or assisting Al Qaeda militants.
So far more than 40 tribesmen have been handed over by local leaders, but authorities say they have lost patience with tribal elders after several key suspects escaped.
US and Afghan forces have often complained that militants evading capture in Afghanistan have been able to flee into Pakistan and hide. They also say that a bloody insurgency linked to the Taliban has been launched from Pakistani territory. -Reuters
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