12 al Qaeda killed in army raid

ANGORE ADDA, Pakistan -- Pakistan's army launched its largest offensive against al Qaeda and other militants in a rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan Thursday, killing at least 12 suspects and arresting 18, military officials said.\nAn Associated Press reporter at the scene saw four bodies. Maj. Gen. Ameer Faisal, the commander of the operation, said eight other bodies were lying in an area about 100 yards away that was too dangerous to enter.\nTen al Qaeda suspects, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, were seen being led away from the area. The military said 18 suspects were detained in all.\nArmy officials said one Pakistani soldier was killed and two wounded in the operation in the South Waziristan area.\nFaisal said most of those killed and captured appeared to be foreigners. It was not immediately clear if any top-ranking al Qaeda operatives were among them.\nOn Monday, a U.S. soldier was killed in a gunbattle with anti-coalition forces near a base at Shkin, a town in Afghanistan's Paktika province, just across the border from South Waziristan. The base and several others along the border come under frequent attack.\nSeveral hundred Afghan troops moved earlier this week into Paktika, in apparent response to the soldier's killing.\nAbout 200 Pakistani troops reportedly took part in the operation, and Gen. Shaukat Sultan, an army spokesman, said it was the army's largest offensive against al Qaeda in the fiercely autonomous tribal areas.\nAt one point, gunfire could be heard coming from a group of compounds where Faisal said other al Qaeda suspects had taken refuge. At least four Pakistani helicopters circled the area.\n"Al Qaeda people have taken refuge in these five big compounds. We do not know how many people are hiding there," Faisal told AP.\nArmy helicopters and soldiers were organizing the operation from a base camp at Angore Adda, just a half-mile from the fighting and the last Pakistani town before the border with Afghanistan. The army brought several journalists to the camp by helicopter to observe the operation, then took them to the fighting area.\nThe troops moved into South Waziristan early Thursday after receiving word that al Qaeda operatives had sneaked into the area from Afghanistan, the army said in a statement.\n"The operation commenced early this morning and is progressing smoothly," the statement said.\nThe areas of North and South Waziristan, both in Pakistan's ultraconservative North West Frontier Province, have long been suspected as a possible hideouts for al Qaeda fugitives, as well as remnants of the ousted Taliban regime of Afghanistan.\nOsama bin Laden and his alleged No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding somewhere along the long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.\nThe Waziristan area is home to Pashtun tribesmen who have for centuries maintained a fierce independence and who share the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.\nMaulana Fazl-ur Rahman, a pro-Taliban politician in Islamabad, condemned the operation.\n"This operation is not in the interest of the nation. al Qaeda may be against America, but they are certainly not against Pakistan and Muslims," he said. "This operation will give a negative impression about Pakistan in the Arab world."\nSultan told AP that the "operation is part of Pakistan's effort at combating terrorism."\nThe army said no foreign troops took part in the operation. Residents in the tribal areas have reported seeing U.S. special forces operatives in the past, but the presence of American forces has always been denied by Islamabad and Afghanistan.\nThe operation came on the same day that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca had been due to arrive in Pakistan for talks on the war on terrorism, but Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced the visit had been postponed for "scheduling reasons." Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali is in the United States to meet with senior U.S. officials.\nSeveral high-profile al Qaeda arrests in Pakistan have coincided with major international diplomatic events.\nExactly a year after Sept. 11, 2001, a suspected planner of the terrorist attacks, Ramzi Binalshibh, was captured in the southern city of Karachi. In June -- three days after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf met President Bush in the United States -- another al Qaeda operative was arrested and a videocassette seized that purportedly showed bin Laden warning of attacks against U.S. interests.\nAfghan and Western officials complain that Taliban fighters have received a safe haven in Pakistan and frequently cross the porous border to carry out attacks.\nAfghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told the AP in a recent interview that he had received intelligence that al Qaeda fighters were in the tribal areas.\n"We have intelligence that the areas of Waziristan -- North and South Waziristan -- are being mostly used by al Qaeda," he said.\nMany areas in the Waziristan tribal region are extremely remote, requiring hours of travel by camel or four-wheel drive vehicle.