Wanted tribal leader killed after being traced by satellite phone

Friday, June 18th 2004, 6:07 am

By: News On 6

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) _ Pakistan's army killed a renegade tribal leader accused of sheltering al-Qaida fighters, tracing him to a mud-brick compound via a satellite phone and then leveling the building in a helicopter assault, officials said Friday. Six other people also died.

``We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand,'' Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

A helicopter fired a missile at the hideout of Nek Mohammed near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

The army got its break late Thursday when a satellite phone intercept tracked Mohammed to the home of another tribal leader, according to a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not clear if the United States was involved in the phone intercept, although Pakistan is thought to lack the sophisticated satellite technology necessary for such intelligence work, and acknowledges it sometimes receives ``technical help'' from the Americans.

Sultan would not say how Mohammed was found, but said Pakistani forces were the ones who killed Mohammed. He said local reports that an unmanned U.S. aircraft may have fired the missile were ``absurd.''

Mohammed granted two phone interviews with a Pakistan-based reporter for the British Broadcasting Corp. this week, but it was not clear whether authorities used either of those calls to track him down.

In one of the interviews, Mohammed vowed to overthrow both the Pakistani and Afghan governments.

``We want to eradicate the U.S.-installed puppet governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Once we overthrow them, then there will be peace and no one will be able to harm Muslims,'' he said.

The security official said at least two of those killed along with Mohammed were foreigners, but they did not appear to be senior al-Qaida leaders.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat told lawmakers Friday in the National Assembly that the killing of Mohammed was a ``major success.''

``We are confident that this killing of Nek Mohammed will help the ongoing operation in South Waziristan, and counter the threat of terrorism in other parts of the country,'' he said. ``Operations will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated.''

About 70 foreign militants have been killed in South Waziristan since June 9, when the army launched the latest offensive against them, Hayyat said.

Mohammed led a rebellion in March in which 120 people were killed, including nearly 50 security forces. He later agreed to cooperate with the government and turn over foreign militants, but reneged on that promise, prompting the recent burst of fighting.

The U.S. military, pursuing al-Qaida on the Afghan side of the border, has been pressing hard for Islamabad to step up military activity in Waziristan.

The area is considered a possible hideout for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, though there is no hard intelligence on his whereabouts.

Mohammed was staying in the home of another tribal leader, Sher Zaman, when the army helicopters attacked late Thursday. Residents said that in addition to Mohammed, two of Zaman's grown sons, his grandson and an associate of Mohammed were killed in the attack in Pir Bagh, near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.

On Friday, Mohammed's body was taken to his village of Kaloosha, about six miles west of Wana, where thousands attended his funeral.

Mohammed's death was a major victory for the Pakistani army, which has been embarrassed by its forces' losses in fighting with the militants. In the March assault, Pakistani forces were surprised on the first day, suffering heavy casualties and allowing hundreds of suspects to flee.

Government officials had said they believed a high-ranking al-Qaida operative _ possibly bin Laden No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri _ was surrounded in the March attack, but no senior leaders were found. An Uzbek militant, Tahir Yuldash, was reportedly injured in the assault, but he got away.