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| Monday, 23 February 2004 |
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Bin Laden cornered in Pakistan's northwest: report LONDON, Sunday (AFP) US and British special forces have cornered Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a mountainous area in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, the Sunday Express newspaper reported. Quoting "a US intelligence source," it said bin Laden and "up to 50 fanatical henchmen" were inside an area 16 kilometres (10 miles) wide and deep "north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta". "He is boxed in," the unidentified source was quoted by the tabloid as saying, adding that US special forces were "absolutely confident" that he could not escape. According to the source, bin Laden moved into the area, "in the desolate Toba Kakar mountains," about one month ago from another area 240 kilometres to the south, the Sunday Express said. In Washington, a Defense Department spokesman declined to comment on the report. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is believed to be with bin Laden, according to the report. The area is under surveillance from a geostationary spy satellite while US and British special forces await orders to move in, the newspaper said in its early edition, received late Saturday. On Thursday, General Richard Meyers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said US forces were engaged in "intense" efforts to capture bin Laden, but held back from saying where he might be hiding. "There are areas where we think it is most likely he is, and they remain the same," said Meyers, who was speaking to reporters in Washington. "They haven't changed in months," said Myers. Asked whether the Al-Qaeda leader was believed to be in Pakistan, the general replied: "Don't know that. We think in that border region somewhere. We don't know where it is precisely." The Sunday Express said it was also told in London by "a senior Republican close to the White House and the Pentagon" this past week that bin Laden had been located. "They have found bin Laden," the source - described as an "intimate" of the family of US President George W. Bush - was quoted as saying. |
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