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Pakistan fighting slows amid talks


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Pakistani guards with prisoners.

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Pakistanis unsure about 'high value target'

The U.S. is downplaying the possibility of the capture of Ayman al-Zawahiri.

CNN's exclusive video of al-Zawahiri, some of it never before shown.

The Pakistan border is akin to the 'Wild West.'
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  • Nationality: Egyptian

  • Position: Osama bin Laden's closest adviser

  • Status: Wanted, $25 million reward

  • Background: Medical doctor; founder of Egyptian Islamic Jihad; referred to as the "brains of al Qaeda"
  • ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Tribal leaders are trying to broker an end to fierce fighting between Pakistani troops and suspected militants along the Afghan border while speculation persisted about who the fighters might be protecting.

    The United States was performing DNA tests on the bodies of some of those killed during the fighting, a practice used since the start of the war on terrorism to try to identify suspected terrorists, intelligence sources said.

    The fighting attracted global attention when Pakistani officials, expressing surprise at the ferocity of the resistance encountered in southern Waziristan, suggested al Qaeda's No. 2, Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri could be hiding out there.

    U.S. officials have long said they believe al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden are hiding in the remote mountain region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

    The U.S., however, said there was no information that al-Zawahiri was present last week, and the Pakistanis later followed suit.

    Pakistan had said it was certain that some of the fighters were al Qaeda and that they were protecting a "high-value target" inside a 50 sq km (19 sq mi) area the military cordoned off.

    "We think it's a high-value target, one or more, because of the intensity of the resistance," said Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. "Our people were surprised."

    Qazi told CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer that communications intercepts had led them to believe a high-value target was holed up in one of the mud forts in the area, although he said the communicators "talk in code" and nothing had been confirmed.

    "We have made it absolutely clear that we do not know the identity of the high-value target," he said.

    Military sources said that one of the intercepted conversations apparently referred to a wounded person who would need four people to carry him out and another 12 to protect him.

    After initially dropping broad hints that they believed the target was al-Zawahiri, Pakistan backed off the claim over the weekend, saying it could be an Uzbek or Chechen commander or even a local criminal or gangster.

    Pakistan has been carrying out anti-terrorism operations along the border for several weeks, but this battle began Tuesday, when the Frontier Constabulary paramilitary group ran into trouble during a routine search.

    Fifteen paramilitary troops were killed in that initial fight, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said, and about two dozen others were wounded.

    The military later said that the fighters had captured about a dozen of the paramilitary troops and several government liaisons.

    On Saturday, Pakistani military officials announced they had captured about 100 suspects, including suspected al Qaeda members. (Full story)

    Then came the tribal elders, about 65 from seven regions, who called a loya jirga, or tribal council, meeting in Wana, Pakistan's Office for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) said.

    The tribal leaders met early Sunday with Pakistani military officials, and persuaded the army to reduce its air assault on the region to intermittent fire, military sources said.

    In return, the tribal leaders agreed to enter the area and try to persuade the Ahmed Zai tribe to hand over captives and any militants they may be protecting, the sources said.

    Qazi said Pakistan intended to "clean up the place" and would continue its operation in the region until the job is done.

    "Wherever we come across extremists ... we will proceed against them, and we will either capture them or eliminate them in one way or another, because these people are not friends of the people of Pakistan," he said.

    If the supposed high-value target turns out to be al-Zawahiri, his capture -- or death -- would be a huge feather in the cap of the Bush administration. The United States has a $25 million reward posted.

    U.S. and Pakistani officials said American forces were not participating in the operation, although about 12 U.S. military personnel were assisting with communications and other technical aspects of the operation.

    U.S. and Afghan troops are carrying out their own operations on the Afghan side of the border.

    -- CNN Bureau Chief Ash-har Quraishi and Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson in Islamabad and Correspondent Ryan Chilcote in Kabul contributed to this report


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