Pakistan locates terror kingpin

2006-08-18 12:08

Islamabad - Pakistan has informed US-led coalition forces that an al-Qaeda kingpin linked to an alleged plot to blow up airliners is based in eastern Afghanistan, security officials said on Friday.

The senior Pakistani officials said the unnamed al-Qaeda member was based in Afghanistan's volatile eastern province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan's militant-infested north-western tribal areas.

The information came from the interrogation of Rashid Rauf, a Briton whose arrest by Pakistani agents in early August allegedly led to the uncovering of the conspiracy to bomb US-bound planes, they said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not identify the militant but said he was on the level below the terror network's chief Osama bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

"His area of operations is in Kunar," one of the senior officials told AFP.

Coalition partners informed

The official said their information about his whereabouts was based on information provided by Rauf and added that "coalition partners" had been informed.

When asked if the US-led forces stationed in Afghanistan were chasing the individual, the Pakistan official said: "Obviously we are working very closely, and co-operation among the coalition partners is excellent."

He would not divulge if there had been any progress in the hunt.

Pakistani officials on Thursday said that Rauf used members of the Islamic militant group Jamaatul Furqan - blamed for a 2002 attack on an Islamabad church - as a conduit to communicate with the al-Qaeda operative.

Bin Laden hideout

Mountainous, forested Kunar borders Pakistan tribal areas where US and Afghan officials have said they believe bin Laden and his henchmen are most likely hiding.

Al-Qaeda was once hosted by Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime, but its members fled across the rugged frontier after the invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

US-led coalition troops are still battling an ongoing insurgency by Taliban and al-Qaeda-led militants across southern and eastern Afghanistan, including in Kunar.

A coalition soldier died in a clash in Kunar on Thursday, while eight "extremists" were killed there on Wednesday, they added.

- AFP