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A Taliban Leader in Pakistan Says He Would Aid bin Laden
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 20 — A Pakistani Taliban leader who has been waging a government-backed campaign to evict Central Asian militants from Pakistan’s tribal regions said Friday that he would give Osama bin Laden protection in his area if he sought it.
“Bin Laden has never come to this area, but if he comes here and seeks our protection, then according to tribal laws and customs we will protect him,” the Taliban commander, Mullah Muhammad Nazir, 32, said at a rare news conference in the city of Wana in the tribal region of South Waziristan.
“Our traditions and customs demand that we support the oppressed,” added Mr. Nazir, who was flanked by heavily armed men.
Al Qaeda’s top leaders, Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are widely believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan’s seven tribal areas, which run along the Afghan border. Much of the area is mountainous and lawless, used by pro-Taliban militants to run training camps and mount crossborder insurgency operations into Afghanistan.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/world/asia/21pakistan.html
“Our traditions and customs demand that we support the oppressed,” added Mr. Nazir, who was flanked by heavily armed men.
Al Qaeda’s top leaders, Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are widely believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan’s seven tribal areas, which run along the Afghan border. Much of the area is mountainous and lawless, used by pro-Taliban militants to run training camps and mount crossborder insurgency operations into Afghanistan.
More
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/world/asia/21pakistan.html
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WASHINGTON, April 20: The US military does not have permission to conduct operations inside Pakistan’s tribal territory even if it is tipped that Osama bin Laden is hiding in that area, says the commander of the US Central Command (Centcom).
Admiral William Fallon told a congressional hearing that the arrangement they had with Islamabad did not allow them to take direct military actions against targets inside Pakistan.
But he assured members of the House Armed Services Committee that if he received “information on the exact whereabouts of Osama, we’d do everything we possibly could to try to get him.”
Congressman Gene Taylor, a Democratic member of the committee, however, insisted to know what the Centcom would do “if Osama … was identified to be in a specific building, on a specific street, on a specific village in Waziristan.”
“I do not have permission to go across that border on my own, and to conduct activities within that country, without some arrangement or agreement with the government of Pakistan,” he said.
Admiral Fallon also disagreed with the suggestion that under the Waziristan agreement, Islamabad had given the area to any specific group.
Admiral Fallon said that in a recent meeting with President Pervez Musharraf, he discussed with him “situations in which we might ask for specific help and has been assured that (we) would receive those, should I bring those to him, to his attention.”
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http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/21/top2.htm