Afghan-Pakistan border likely hideout for new al-Qaeda chief

By Nadeem Sarwar Jun 16, 2011, 16:17 GMT

Islamabad - Ayman al-Zawahiri's exact whereabouts are unknown, but intelligence officials say he is most likely hiding along the porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Al-Zawahiri, 59, is believed to be constantly on the move in the tribal belt along the border, using hundreds of different mountain trails, a Pakistani intelligence official told the German Press Agency dpa on Thursday.

'It's difficult to guess where he would be right now. He might give us a surprise like bin Laden, who was living in a big villa in Abbottabad when we were expecting him (to be) somewhere in a cave in the mountains,' the official said.

Terrorism experts say that while al-Zawahiri might be found in the pine-clad mountains along the Afghanistan border or even in a densely populated urban area, it's likely that his hideout is inside Pakistan.

The Egyptian eye-surgeon-turned-militant succeeded Osama bin Laden as the leader of al-Qaeda, the terrorist network said Thursday.

In its announcement, which comes six weeks after bin Laden was killed by US elite commandos in Pakistan, al-Qaeda vowed to continue its 'holy war' against the United States and Israel.

Bin Laden was shot dead on May 2 in his highly secured compound in the northwestern city of Abbottabad, not far from the capital, Islamabad. He had been hiding for years, unnoticed, behind the high walls built of grey cement blocks and topped with barbed wire.

His capture and killing in a place known as 'Army City,' because of its military training and education institutions, has reinforced speculation that al-Zawahiri is also hiding in the region.

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, during which al-Zawahiri lost his wife and at least one child in the bombings, he is believed to have fled to Pakistan's mountainous tribal region along its border with Afghanistan.

As he continued to issue video and audio messages over the years from untraceable and unknown locations, the first intelligence claim about his whereabouts came after a US drone attack on January 13, 2006 on an Islamic seminary in Damadola village in Pakistan's tribal district of Bajaur, which borders the Afghan province of Kunar.

Eighty people died in the attack but al-Zawahiri was safe, having left the seminary earlier. His actual hideout may have been a cave complex, with a dozen tunnels, which was unearthed by Pakistani forces after they overtook Damadola in early 2010.

Called 'Hilton' by militants because of its beds and the availability of cooked food, the cave complex was built to dodge any form of air surveillance - a perfect hiding place for al-Zawahiri, who was the second most wanted man by the US after bin Laden.

In August 2008, US broadcaster CBS News claimed to have obtained a copy of a letter written by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud - who was killed in a drone attack in early 2010 - in South Waziristan district, informing local military officials that al-Zawahiri had been wounded in a drone attack and needed treatment.

The report was denied by a Taliban spokesman, but stirred rumours, even in Taliban circles. It was subsequently reported that two helicopters with army doctors on board had landed in Ladha fort, a paramilitary base in South Waziristan, and al-Zawahiri was treated.

US and other Western officials have long suspected a collaboration between some powerful officials within Pakistani intelligence and al-Qaeda. The killing of bin Laden a few hundred meters from a military academy in Abbottabad raised questions about how he could have lived there without any local support.

Mohamand, a tribal district adjacent to Bajaur, is suspected to be another place of refuge for al-Zawahiri. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in September 2008 that security forces had information about al-Zawahiri's presence in Mohmand, but failed to capture him.

He said that al-Zawahiri moved between Mohmand and the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktika.

The region is scenic but has a treacherous landscape of mountains and thick forests that spread from Mohmand and Bajaur to the Afghan regions of Kunar, Khost, Paktika and Nooristan and also the Pakistani district of Swat, where al-Qaeda has long been running a camp in the Peuchar valley.

Al-Zawahiri is believed to have stayed in Peuchar, which is dotted by a large numbers of tunnels connecting several caves.

Hamza bin Laden, the oldest son of bin Laden, has also lived there. But he was forced to leave the camp in October 2008, following a Pakistani aerial strike that killed dozens of militants, after the escape of a kidnapped Chinese engineer from Peuchar.

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