Pakistan military closes in on Taliban stronghold

[October 30, 2009]  ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistani forces pressing an offensive inside the militant stronghold of South Waziristan are closing in on a major Taliban base there and have killed 14 insurgents over the last 24 hours, the army said Friday.

The reported advances came a day after the army displayed passports apparently belonging to two suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that soldiers found in an abandoned building in the remote region close to the Afghan border.

The Pakistani military launched a ground offensive earlier this month in the rugged, tribally controlled region of South Waziristan, where the Pakistani Taliban are based and are believed to shelter al-Qaida leaders.

It has deployed about 30,000 troops against some 5,000 to 8,000 militants, a top general said Thursday during a rare visit to the battle area by journalists. His estimate included up to 1,500 foreign fighters, most of them Uzbeks.

In a statement, the army said its soldiers now control the hills above the village of Sararogha, a reputed base where Taliban leaders have long have operated openly. The army said 14 militants had been killed, along with two Pakistani soldiers.

A total of 299 militants and 34 government soldiers have been killed in the offensive, according to a tally of army figures. Six more militants have been arrested.

Access to South Waziristan is heavily restricted, so independently verifying death tolls from fighting is all but impossible.

Soldiers Thursday displayed passports seized in the operation, among them a German document belonging to a man named Said Bahaji. That matches the name of a man thought to have been a member of the Hamburg cell that conceived the 9/11 attacks. Bahaji is believed to have fled Germany shortly before the attacks in New York and Washington.

The passport included a tourist visa for Pakistan and a stamp indicating he'd arrived in the southern city of Karachi on Sept. 4, 2001.

Another passport, from Spain, bears the name of Raquel Burgos Garcia. Spanish media have reported that a woman with the same name is married to Amer Azizi, an alleged al-Qaida member from Morocco suspected in both the 9/11 attacks and the Madrid train bombings in 2004.

Her family in Madrid has had no news of her since 2001, according to Spanish media. Her passport included visas to India and Iran, and the army displayed a Moroccan document with Burgos Garcia's photo and other information.

[Associated Press; By TIM SULLIVAN]

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