Who's The Enemy Now?

Along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, there is no shortage of spies and informers. In that mountain lair where al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives are burrowed in amid local tribes that pay little heed to the government in Islamabad, at least five rival Pakistani agencies run networks in search of Osama bin Laden and his cohort. The snitches seemed to have come up with gold last week. TIME has learned that Pakistani troops, already engaged in an offensive to flush out foreign fighters, pounced on an informer's tip that al-Qaeda sympathizers were hiding with foreign militants in the village of Kalosha. Before dawn last Tuesday, 400 members of Pakistan's Frontier Corps swooped in, only to be ambushed by heavy fire; at least 22 troops died. In response, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered 8,000 troops to converge on a cluster of villages deep in South Waziristan, drawing a cordon around 20 sq. mi. of hills and apple orchards dotted with mud fortresses. Somewhere inside, Musharraf announced, his forces had surrounded a "high-value target." Soon a variety of sources were giving the target a name: Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda and bin Laden's closest aide.

The Army's spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, acknowledged that no one had definitively spotted al-Zawahiri in the area since fighting flared on Tuesday. Lieut. General Safdar Hussain, the Frontier Corps commander, told journalists that a vehicle that may have been carrying al-Zawahiri managed to crash through militia roadblocks and escape. Yet what made the military believe they might still have a trophy in their gunsights was that al-Qaeda fighters normally vanish when confronted with a sizable force. This time they resisted fiercely, as if to protect someone special. Somewhere between 200 and 400 militants kept 8,000 Pakistani soldiers half a mile away with a steady barrage of small-arms fire, anti-aircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenades. After a day of battle, the army commander called in helicopter gunships, jets and artillery. By Saturday night a cloud of dust hung over the area, but the army had still not defeated the militants. "We've tightened our cordon," said Sultan. "Nobody will escape."

As the battle raged, Bush Administration officials played down expectations. Officials said U.S. intelligence could not confirm reports of al-Zawahiri's whereabouts. But the possibility that he might be cornered sent pulses racing. Since the late '90s, the Egyptian has served as bin Laden's chief tactician, personal doctor and spiritual guide. His elimination would mean the al-Qaeda command structure that plotted the 9/11 attacks would be almost completely wiped out.