Al-Qaida, Taliban plotting terror from Pakistan bases

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- Virtually the entire senior leadership of al-Qaida and the Taliban have been driven out of eastern Afghanistan and are operating with as many as 1,000 non-Afghan fighters in the anarchic tribal areas of western Pakistan, the commander of American-led forces in Afghanistan said Monday.

The commander, Maj. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, said intelligence reports indicated that al-Qaida and Taliban leaders now in Pakistan were plotting terrorist attacks, including car and suicide bombings, to disrupt the selection of a new national government in Kabul next month.

"We know that they are there and have a capability to do harm to this country," Hagenbeck said. "Our job is to deny them the freedom of movement and sanctuary."

Though he suggested two months ago that coalition forces might cross the border in pursuit of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, Hagenbeck said Monday that he did not expect that to happen, largely because Pakistan had developed its own plans to drive al-Qaida and the Taliban from their mountain sanctuaries.

But he echoed a concern voiced in Washington that tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir could delay Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas. Pakistan said last week that it intended to move some of its troops from the Afghan border to the Kashmir region.

Hagenbeck also said several recent raids on compounds in southern Afghanistan, the region where the Taliban received the most support, had been intended to break up groups that had been plotting terrorist attacks against coalition forces and their Afghan allies.

Residents of those villages have asserted that the coalition forces were mistaken about the presence of terrorist groups, and say innocent people have been killed in the raids.

Hagenbeck, commander of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, would not say whether Pakistan had begun pulling back troops from the border. But he expressed confidence that Pakistan's military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, would fulfill a pledge to eliminate al-Qaida and Taliban sanctuaries in the tribal region.

"I have no concern that they are not going to do what they've said they will do," Hagenbeck said in his office at this former Soviet base, now the headquarters for more than 10,000 allied troops in Afghanistan. "They are interested in ridding western Pakistan of al-Qaida."

He added, "With what is currently going on in India, I don't know what the timing's going to be."

There have been reports from Pakistan that Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida, has been seen in the tribal areas as recently as last month. But Hagenbeck said he had no reliable information on the whereabouts of bin Laden or Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader.

In making his remarks Monday, Hagenbeck was sending two messages. One is that he believes that the American-led coalition, which includes British, Canadian and other forces, has effectively cleared the rugged mountains southeast of Kabul of all but the smallest groups of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

A major offensive into the Shah-e-Kot Valley in March killed as many as 700 Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, the Pentagon says, though Afghan officials have said the number may have been lower.

But secondly, Hagenbeck was expressing the view, widely held in Washington, that it is up to Pakistan to move more aggressively against al-Qaida forces within Pakistan's boundaries.

He estimated that 100 to 1,000 non-Afghan al-Qaida fighters were in the tribal areas, including Chechens and Uzbeks, as well as Uighurs from western China.

U.S. trainers start work on Georgia antiterror unit

TBILISI, Georgia -- U.S. Army trainers opened their two-year program Monday to upgrade Georgia's tiny military to a force strong enough to fight terrorists.

The program "is the beginning of a new chapter in the global war on terrorism," Lt. Col. Robert M. Waltemeyer, mission commander, said at an opening day ceremony at a military academy in Tbilisi, the capital.

Georgian officers and other military specialists will be the first group trained for 10 weeks under the $64-million program. That will be followed by 100-day tactical training programs for four specialized Georgian army units: special forces, commando, mountain battalions and a motorized rifle brigade.

About 70 U.S. troops are in Georgia, but as specialists come and go the training corps will at times expand to 150.

U.S. officials have expressed concern that terrorists linked to al-Qaida may be sheltered in the lawless Pankisi Gorge in northeast Georgia.

In brief . . .

WIDOW URGED TO TESTIFY: Prosecutors in Pakistan pressed Monday for the widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl to testify as soon as possible against four Islamic radicals charged in his kidnapping and murder. The court is expected to rule today on the request for a panel to travel to London to take a statement from Mariane Pearl, who lives in Paris and is expected to deliver her first child around June 2.

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