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WASHINGTON (US): The Pentagon is moving elements of a super-secret commando unit from Iraq to the Afghanistan theatre to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, says a Washington Times report appearing Monday.

Khalil Bughio, the special correspondent of Pakistan's state-run news agency in a dispatch from Washington says that Rowan Scarborough in the report quotes a US Defense Department official stating that there are two reasons for repositioning parts of Task Force 121:

First, most high-value human targets in Iraq, including Saddam Hussein, have been caught or killed. Second, intelligence reports are increasing on the whereabouts of bin Laden, the terror leader behind the September-11 attacks.

New Strategy

"Iraq has become more of a policing problem than a hunt for high-value Iraqis," the defense official said. "Afghanistan is the place where 121 can do more."

The WT report meanwhile says Gen. John Abizaid, chief of US Central Command, recently praised Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf's willingness to send paramilitary personnel into tribal belt.

"I talk to him frequently," Gen. Abizaid said of Gen. Musharraf. "I just visited him the other day. I saw him after one of two assassination attempts. He knows that al Qaeda is trying to kill him, and he absolutely, positively wants to get the problem under control.

Difficulties

"But there are difficulties that he has that are associated with working in the tribal areas that he has to work through on his own," Gen. Abizaid said.

The report adds that task forces typically change names when they move, so it is likely that the commando unit arriving in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region will take a new name.

Task Force 121

Task Force 121 is a mix of Army Delta Force soldiers and Navy SEALs, transported on helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The SEALs and soldiers are based at Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, N.C.

Delta-SEAL teams typically move into theater, practice missions and wait for military and CIA intelligence to provide the location of a target, such as Saddam.

Hunt for Bin Laden

The new task force to hunt bin Laden in the Afghanistan area likely will be led by a Navy SEAL who was toasted in Washington while working antiterrorism issues in the Bush administration.

The Washington Times is withholding his name because of the secret nature of the operation. WT quotes Military sources stating reports of bin Laden's movements are becoming more numerous as the fugitive hides in the mountainous terrain straddling the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

"They're getting better intelligence, and they've gotten better at fusing the intelligence," a second defense source said.

A CIA-military intelligence team conducted a similar operation in Iraq to catch Saddam. Officers made a schematic of family members and Ba'athist officials close to Saddam and questioned them on his whereabouts. The team hit pay dirt when a recently detained Iraqi revealed precise information on the ousted  dictator's whereabouts on a farm south of Tikrit.

Task Force 121 joined a 4th Infantry Division unit Dec. 13 in raiding the farm and finding Saddam the hideout. The commando task force took Saddam to Tikrit in a Special Operations "Little Bird" helicopter before he was imprisoned in the Baghdad area.

Optimism for Cage

The report says, speculation that the United States is close to finding bin Laden heightened last month when military officers in Afghanistan predicted that the terror leader would be killed or captured by year's end.

"We have a variety of intelligence, and we're sure we're going to catch Osama bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammed] Omar this year," Army Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in January. "We've learned lessons from Iraq, and we're getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people."

Perspective

A few days earlier, Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told the BBC: "You can be assured that we're putting a renewed emphasis on closing this out and bringing these two individuals to justice, as well as the other senior leadership of that organization. They represent a threat to the entire world, and they need to be destroyed."

Tenet's Visit to Pakistan?

Meanwhile, Khalida Mazhar 'Pakistan Times' Foreign Correspondent in New York quotes an American news agency report which says that "the CIA Director George Tenet visited Pakistan earlier this month to share information on Osama bin Laden and to discuss ways to combat nuclear proliferation".

"Both sides shared views and information," a story beamed by The Associated Press [of America] said.

The US Embassy in Islamabad, the news agency says; 'declined to comment and the Foreign Ministry refused to confirm the visit.'

An identical story has been aired by the French news agency, AFP with an intro; "CIA chief George Tenet visited Pakistan two weeks ago and met senior officials amid renewed efforts by Islamabad to track down al-Qaeda leaders."

Possible Hide-Out

Al Qaeda Chief, Osama Bin Laden is thought to be in the lawless tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

US officials say 'U.S. troops do not cross into Pakistan, leaving the hunt on the ground.' But specific intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts might prompt the use of a Delta-SEAL task force to raid his Pakistan-Afghan border hide-out, the daily quoting officials says.

No Ground Operation by Foreign Forces, says Pakistani Interior Minister

'Pakistan Times' Staff Correspondent Salman Shahid in Islamabad adds: The foreign forces are not conducting any ground operation anywhere inside Pakistan and no fresh operation along the Pak-Afghan border has been undertaken by the Pakistani forces too, Pakistan's Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Monday.

'The foreign forces are not carrying out any ground operation in Pakistani territory, neither have they done so in the past, nor will they be given permission in future,' Faisal told media-men while commenting on reports to this effect emanating from abroad.

War on Terror

Faisal said the war on terror was a global one and Pakistan's role was limited to information and intelligence-sharing.

He said it was ongoing operation in Wana or any other area along the 2,500-kilometres Pak-Afghan border and an action is taken along the Pak-Afghan border by Pakistani forces in this operation whenever required on receiving some information and intelligence. 'Civil armed forces, which are FC Balochistan and FC NWFP, had been deputed along the Pak-Afghan border and supplemented by some regular forces,' the minister added.

Amenesty

To a question, Interior Minister Faisal said amnesty had been offered in a meeting with tribal leaders sometime back and those surrendering voluntarily under this amnesty offer were not being handed over to other countries.

'Pakistanis are not at all being handed over to other countries while those foreigners only captured after fight would be delivered abroad if required,' he said. 'The offer of amnesty for voluntary surrender is almost ending now.'

Faisal Saleh Hayat termed as "premature" whether known foreigners, if caught, would be handed over to other countries.

He disagreed with the term "sealing", because so long a border could not be altogether sealed but emphasized that Pakistani forces had "secured" the border.

Allies Increase

The coalition forces across the border should also secure their side of the divide because infiltration may also be from there, the minister said and disclosed that US and Europeans had now indicated that they are increasing their forces on the other side for the purpose of "securing the border".

Rashid denies Speculations on Bin Laden

Earlier, Pakistan's Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmad denied rumors of cordoning of Osama Bin Laden.

Talking to BBC radio he referred to the denial of ISPR about obtaining the photos of Osama.

Rashid said that the Army on our side was alert and ready to cope with any eventuality and check alleged entry in the country. Government was in touch with tribal elders of the areas through Jirga system and every step was being taken after taking them into confidence, he remarked.

Foreigners could be Extradited to United States: Kasuri

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has said that any terrorist captured in Pakistan during an operation will be tried and punished according to Pakistani laws. If they would belong to another country they will be extradited to that country.

He was addressing a joint press conference with his Palestine counterpart Farouk Kaddoumi after a meeting.