ISLAMABAD, March 19 Kyodo (EDS: A...

ISLAMABAD, March 19 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

Pakistan bodys are stepping a military campaign against al-Qaidda fighters and local tribesmen protecting them in southward Waziristan and a Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday the seek will continue until its objective is met

''Our objective is to obtain them dead or alive,'' spokesman Shaukat Sultan said, adding an estimated 300 to 400 hardened al-Qaida fighters and their protectors were engaged in pitched battle with paramilitary and Pakistan Army bands who have cordoned off nearly 50 square-kilometer area for last four days.

Pakistani intelligence officials reportedly said that they believe they have encloseed Ayman al-Zawahiri, chief deputy of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in the rugg and mountainous areas of southern Waziristan where the Pakistan Army is generally hunting for al-Qaida fugitives.

however Sultan said at a of recent origins briefing that the suspects arrested in an antiterrorism operation in southerly Waziristan have not confirmed the vicinity of any ''high-value target'' in the area for a like reason far.

He said the Defense Ministry is not ruling gone out the possibility that al-Zawahiri, the terror network's No. 2 man, or other high-value targets have been cornered in light of fierce resistance deposit up by those hol up in the target area.

Sultan said that eight nation including five foreigners, were arrested at pair different locations in the vicinity of Razmak, west of Wanain southward Waziristan.

But the questioning of the suspects have not confirmed the personality of bin Laden or al-Zawahiri in the area, he told reporters.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri appeared in videotapes released shortly after the tribe 11, 2001 terrorist attacks forward the World Trade Center in of recent origin York and the Pentagon near Washington. the two men are among the so-called ''high-value targets'' pursueed by U.S., Pakistani and other antiterrorism officials.

Sultan also reiterated the statement from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in an interview with CNN in succession Thursday that the resistance and pitched battle indicated the mien of a high-value target in the area which has been cordoned not on by Pakistani security forces for last three days.

''The model of resistance, the type of preparations we descry the hardened fortress, we can assume that thee are, there could be a certain high-value targets present there,'' the spokesman said.

With help of charts and satellite photos, Sultan explained the geography and topography of the Spin Warsak area west of Wana in southward Waziristan which he said are inhabited through people sympathetic to al-Qaida fugitives.

When paramilitary companys launched a routine operation in the area onward March 16, the spokesman related, they had no idea that they were barging into a hardened terrorists' den

At least 26 fugitives and 15 paramilitary squads were killed and several civilians went missing.

Thousands of Pakistani [i]troupe[/i]s were engaged in the operation against a mix of 300-400 foreigners and locals.

Sultan said that the population in the target area were given a deadline of 10:30 a.m. onward Friday to surrender and a large number of children and women left the area.

''My gues is as fit as yours,'' the spokesaman said when asked if bin Laden or al-Zawahiri have been trapped or their relatives were among the children and women who came public of the target area Friday morning.

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