A BULLETPROOF LandCruiser at
high speed bursting out of a tribal compound in Pakistan's South
Waziristan region was just the latest infuriating setback in the US's
quest to bring down the top of the al-Qa'ida tree.
The car,
followed by two armoured vehicles and a phalanx of heavily armed militants
able to wipe out dozens of crack troops sent to blast the terrorists from
their nest, is believed to have contained Ayman al-Zawahiri, right-hand
man to Osama bin Laden.
After mounting speculation that US and Pakistani forces ranged on
either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border were about to pounce on
al-Qa'ida's key planner, a senior Taliban spokesman yesterday made the
claim Washington least wanted to hear - that both Zawahiri and bin Laden
were safe in Afghanistan.
"He may have slipped the net," the official said.
Al-Zawahiri, a 52-year-old Egyptian doctor, is one of the FBI's most
wanted terrorists and has a $US25million ($33.4million) price on his head.
So desperate is Washington to nail the pair, the House of Representatives
yesterday doubled the reward for bin Laden's capture to $US50million.
Stiff resistance from about 200 well-armed fighters holed up in
fortified mud huts early in the week -- in the onslaught of Operation
Mountain Storm, designed to rid the lawless border area of foreign
fighters -- had led Pakistani officials to conclude they were close to a
"high-value" target.
Pakistan's leader, General Pervez Musharraf, told CNN exactly that, and
said the fighters "are not coming out in spite of the fact that we pounded
them with artillery".
He did not refer to al-Zawahiri by name, but officials later said that
was who they believed the President meant. The White House, keen not to
raise false hopes, sought to play down the significance of the
strategist's scalp.
"It would be of course a major step forward in the war on terrorism ...
but I think we have to be careful not to assume that getting one al-Qa'ida
leader is going to break up the organisation," US National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice said.
It now appears it was not to be. While it is still not certain
al-Zawahiri was in the car, one Pakistani security official said the
presence of high-powered bulletproof vehicles, and the high level of force
used to provide covering fire for their getaway, supported that theory.
The battle against militants dug into the 30km-diameter region
continued yesterday, with hundreds more troops joining the thousands
already engaged, and mortars and helicopter gunships laying down a barrage
of fire.
Hundreds of al-Qa'ida fighters are believed to be hiding in South
Waziristan, the remotest and most conservative of Pakistan's seven
semi-autonomous tribal districts.
The Bush administration sees Pakistan -- an overwhelmingly Muslim
country -- as an invaluable ally in the war on terrorism. This has come at
great personal risk to General Musharraf, who has narrowly escaped two
recent assassination attempts.
Former al-Qa'ida No 3 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was caught in Pakistan in
March 2003 and the US has maintained pressure for further victories.
During a visit to Islamabad on Thursday, US Secretary of State Colin
Powell praised General Musharraf for his country's help and announced
Washington now regarded it as a "major non-NATO ally".
In recent broadcasts, al-Zawahiri has described the war on terrorism as
a war on Islam, and criticised Islamic leaders who co-operated with the
US.
"(George W.) Bush appoints corrupt leaders and protects them," he said
in a tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television.