Pakistan is said to push Qaeda hunt

WASHINGTON -- In northwestern territories of Pakistan, where US authorities suspect Osama bin Laden and members of his Al Qaeda network may be hiding, Pakistani forces have begun confronting tribal leaders by threatening the destruction of homes in some cases to enlist help, the senior US military commander in Afghanistan said yesterday.

Pakistan's past reluctance to take action in the territories, which have a tradition of semiautonomous rule under strong tribal chiefs, had frustrated US authorities in their campaign against Al Qaeda. There have been reports before of increased Pakistani military action, though few indications of solid success.

But Army Lieutenant General David Barno, who commands about 11,000 US troops in Afghanistan, said yesterday that the latest Pakistani efforts, which began in the past two months, "show the greatest promise we have seen in a while" of rooting out Al Qaeda operatives.

Although he provided few details, Barno called some of the new Pakistani measures "quite innovative." He said he had seen reports of Pakistani forces trying, in some instances, to compel the cooperation of local leaders by threatening to destroy homes and by taking other steps "of that nature."

He said regular Pakistani troops are now "operating periodically" in the territories after having no significant presence in the region previously. "So the fact that they are now there, that they have got a presence, that they're confronting the tribal elders and they're holding them accountable for activities in their areas of influence is a major step forward," Barno said. "And it's something that we're watching with great interest and with some cautious optimism that it will have a positive effect."

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon via a video connection from Afghanistan, Barno did not mention any US military participation in the activities on the Pakistani side of the border. US special operations forces have reportedly ventured into the rugged territories from time to time, but their presence in an area where many villagers are sympathetic to Al Qaeda is a highly sensitive issue for Pakistani authorities and is rarely acknowledged.

Barno said the United States and Pakistan are continuing to coordinate operations in a kind of "hammer-and-anvil approach" to prevent Al Qaeda fighters from escaping back-and-forth across the border. Barno said he confers monthly with Pakistani military authorities and hosts a meeting every four to six weeks of US, Pakistani, and Afghan security officials to address border and intelligence issues.

He declined to repeat a prediction he made to reporters last month that bin Laden would be captured by the end of the year. But he said US forces are "reenergizing" efforts to find not just bin Laden and other senior Al Qaeda members but also leaders of other enemy groups -- most notably, Mohammad Omar, who headed the Taliban government ousted by US forces in 2001, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade Afghan warlord.

The intensified targeting of enemy leaders comes amid a broader adjustment in US tactics that Barno described. Instead of venturing out for raids and then returning to base, Barno said, US forces are staying in areas for sustained periods and operating continuously, in effect "owning" chunks of territory. This allows troops to develop and maintain relations with local leaders and to gather better intelligence, Barno said. Barno pointed to discoveries in the past month of caches of weapons and ammunition.