US Forces Hunt Bin Laden In Pakistan

Dec 18, 2001

WASHINGTON, Monday - The United States has sent special operations troops inside Pakistan to help coordinate the hunt for suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and his associates in that country, ABC News reported late on Monday.

WASHINGTON, Monday - The United States has sent special operations troops inside Pakistan to help coordinate the hunt for suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and his associates in that country, ABC News reported late on Monday. ABC news said the US had sent special troops to Pakistan to help coordinate the search and the Central Intelligence Agency operatives interrogating prisoners in detention centres there. The report said the US now has hard intelligence, much of it from prisoners just captured in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, that bin Laden was in that area as recently as three days ago, but the trail has suddenly gone cold. Some 4,000 Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships have been deployed on the other side of the border to prevent any al-Qaeda infiltration. US and Afghan forces scoured Afghanistan’s eastern highlands for Osama bin Laden as a US official said his location was “anybody’s guess,” while preparations continued for an interim government in this war-torn nation. For the first time in two weeks, the Tora Bora battleground was silent, as tribal forces claimed they had defeated bin Laden’s al-Qaeda fighters defending a complex of caves and tunnels that served as their headquarters. US warplanes suspended their bombing raids and local and US forces searched the mountainous area for fleeing al-Qaeda members and their leader, bin Laden. “A few days ago we believed he was in the area,” a Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, said from Washington. AFP Ends

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