Al- Qaida Number 2 Escapes, Claims He Has Briefcase A-Bombs

In the interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. television, parts of which were released Sunday, Mir recalled telling al-Zawahri it was difficult to believe that al-Qaida had nuclear weapons when the terror network didn't have the equipment to maintain or use them.

"Dr Ayman al-Zawahri laughed and he said `Mr. Mir, if you have $30 million, go to the black market in central Asia, contact any disgruntled Soviet scientist, and a lot of ... smart briefcase bombs are available,'" Mir said in the interview.

"They have contacted us, we sent our people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other central Asian states and they negotiated, and we purchased some suitcase bombs," Mir quoted al-Zawahri as saying.

el - I think al-Qaeda with nukes is the biggest threat. Since the White House outed one of our few deep cover spies tasked with preventing nuclear proliferation just for petty revenge politics they must not see it that way.

More al-Qaeda news:

Pakistani Anger Over Offensive

In Wana, anger with the offensive was growing.

"They are targeting innocent people," said one shopkeeper, who gave his name as just Akbar. "Tribal people are angry. Their houses and villages are being attacked. They have no option but to fight back."

The deputy chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party, Khursheed Ahmed, said the offensive was divisive.

"It has pitted the people of the tribal areas against the army. It could prove a continuous source of tension," he said.

"These people can not be tamed by force. This is their history, against the British Empire as well as against the Soviet Union. How can the Pakistan army control them using force?"

A villager arriving in Wana from an outlying area said he had seen bodies strewn across the ground near one village. It was not clear how many dead he had seen or who they were.

A council of about 200 tribal elders, known as a jirga, urged authorities to call a ceasefire so people could bury the dead.

Pakistani commanders say they have surrounded several hundred foreign al Qaeda supporters and their Pakistani tribal allies but doubt al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's deputy, is among them, as some officials had suspected last week.

Pakistan Opposition Party Claims Operation Botched

[Former Prime Minister] Bhutto said that the badly planned tribal operation has backfired. Instead of catching high value targets, the population has been alienated leading to a more fertile recruiting ground for the very militants the regime claims it wishes to eliminate.

"Instead of concentrating on national security issues, the intelligence gathering capacity of the security apparatus has turned into a political party dedicated to horse trading, rigging of elections and intimidation of pro democracy representatives," she added.

"It seems that there is little intelligence on the real whereabouts of militants, terrorists and other wanted persons".

Bhutto called for a bipartisan Parliamentary delegation to visit WANA on a fact-finding tour. She called for compensation to innocent people killed or displaced during the WANA operation.

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Pakistan declares ceasefire

Pakistan's army has declared a ceasefire with suspected al Qaeda fighters near the Afghan border to allow tribal elders to try to negotiate the militants' surrender.

The army says hundreds of al Qaeda suspects and their Pakistani tribal allies are surrounded in the desolate mountains but added fighting had subsided on Sunday after a week of clashes.

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