Border No Barrier In Al Qaeda Hunt

U.S. government personnel are searching for al Qaeda fighters in the rugged tribal regions of northwest Pakistan, and the American military is set to send in troops to join the hunt, officials said Thursday.

The mission of U.S. special forces is expanding to include covert missions into Pakistan's remote tribal areas to chase members of al Qaeda.

The new strategy became necessary after the latest assaults on al Qaeda positions found little more than abandoned caves on the Afghan side of the border.

The United States and Pakistan reached an agreement several weeks ago allowing American military operations on Pakistani soil, U.S. officials said. The tribal areas are believed to be traditional rallying points for fighters fleeing Afghanistan.

The operations carry considerable risk, physically for the Americans and politically for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who faces a referendum on Tuesday to extend his term as president for five years. He has defied strong anti-American sentiment to support President Bush in countering terrorism.

Pakistan's tribal belt is ruled by deeply conservative and fiercely independent tribesmen who swear little allegiance to anyone but their tribal elders and to laws laid out by tradition and the tenets of Islam. Tribesmen who live in high-walled compounds have warned against U.S. soldiers on their territory.

Publicly, Islamabad denied any knowledge of U.S. operations.

"No U.S. personnel are present in Pakistan's tribal areas searching for al Qaeda men," Aziz Ahmad Khan, spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press.

However, Pakistani intelligence and Interior Ministry sources confirmed that civilian U.S. officials, with the help of Pakistani authorities, are quietly working in the areas to trace the remnants of al Qaeda.

The Pakistani army moves softly in this region. Large madrassas — religious schools — flourish and fiercely anti-American and pro-Taliban religious parties have large followings.

The parties' flags fly from rooftops, above slogans scribbled on walls that say "death to America" and "Long live Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden," referring to the Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.

The tribal areas are just over the border from Afghanistan's Paktia and Paktika provinces, where bin Laden has been and where much of al Qaeda was based before the war in Afghanistan. U.S., Canadian and British forces have conducted operations in those provinces.

The porous border has little meaning to locals and al Qaeda, but holds substantial political significance for the United States and Pakistan. Thousands of Pakistani troops are tied up facing India at its eastern reaches, but former U.S. officials with experience in the region say even hundreds of thousands of troops would be unable to plug every trail in the mountainous area.

U.S. soldiers occasionally pursue al Qaeda fighters across the border into Pakistan, a senior U.S. official told the AP.

But this is separate from the operation being prepared for Pakistan itself, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The operation has not yet begun," said another U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. He described as premature a newspaper account that U.S. military units had participated in attacks on suspected al-Qaida hide-outs.

Also, the official said, American soldiers had not been wounded, as The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The Bush administration and Pakistan worked out rules of engagement several weeks ago, U.S. officials said. The Musharraf government has stood by them despite reports of wavering, one of the officials said.

Some of those terms were unclear, including whether the United States could use its substantial air power in the region.

Because of Pakistani support, the United States also has established a substantial presence in parts of Pakistan some distance from the Afghan border, including at several military bases used to support operations in Afghanistan. In addition, FBI agents and CIA officers took part in the urban raids that led to last month's capture of Abu Zubaydah, Osama bin Laden's top field commander.

In Washington Wednesday, military officials said the capture of key Taliban leaders who still pose a threat to U.S. interests and remain high on America's target list, remains a priority.

Heading the list of Taliban enemies is Omar, the Taliban supreme leader. He vanished from Kandahar as U.S.-backed forces rolled in. In February, he was believed to be in the mountains of central Afghanistan, near the town of Bagram. He is not thought to be with Osama bin Laden.

A top Omar aide, Tayeb Agha, is also wanted. Another key figure who has survived is Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former U.S. ally and the Taliban's former minister of frontier affairs. Since the war in Afghanistan, he has been supporting efforts by al Qaeda, U.S. officials say. The officials believe Haqqani was working closely with al Qaeda commander Abu Zubaydah, who was captured March 28.

The Taliban ground commander in the eastern region where Operation Anaconda took place, Saif Rahman Mansour, is also at large. Officials also name three of Omar's generals, all of whom commanded large bodies of troops, as top targets. Mullah Baradar Akhund, Akhter Mohammed Osmani and Mullah Dadullah all are potential guerrilla commanders seen as threats.