the
weekend australian, australia's national daily newspaper (don't ask us why a daily is named "weekend," it's not like skippy the bush kangaroo knows anything about australia) reports that
ayman al-zawahiri, bin laden's right hand man and the focus of the current operation in afghanistan, may have already slipped through the tightening net the pakistani and american forces are
tightening around the suspect terrorist compound on the afghani border.
a bulletproof landcruiser at high speed bursting out of a tribal compound in pakistan's south waziristan region was just the latest infuriating setback in the us's quest to bring down the top of the al-qa'ida tree.
the car, followed by two armoured vehicles and a phalanx of heavily armed militants able to wipe out dozens of crack troops sent to blast the terrorists from their nest, is believed to have contained ayman al-zawahiri, right-hand man to osama bin laden.
after mounting speculation that us and pakistani forces ranged on either side of the afghanistan-pakistan border were about to pounce on al-qa'ida's key planner, a senior taliban spokesman yesterday made the claim washington least wanted to hear - that both zawahiri and bin laden were safe in afghanistan.
"he may have slipped the net," the official said.
(link via antiwar.com)
meanwhile, the army times reports that two us soldiers have been killed in fighting elsewhere in afghanistan.
two soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in fighting thursday in central afghanistan, the u.s. military said. at least five attackers were killed in the battle, officials said.
in a brief statement, u.s. central command said the american soldiers were accompanied by troops of the afghan national army when they were attacked by "anti-coalition militia" in a village near tarin kowt.
the americans were not identified by name or military unit.
cross-posted on the american street and our own stout-hearted blog.
