Pakistan tribal group releases 11
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| AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI | 
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"
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- After a week of negotiations, a Pakistan tribal group released 11 Pakistani paramilitary forces in exchange for government forces pulling out of Wana where fighting between the forces and suspected al Qaeda fighters has raged for weeks.
Government sources said the Ahmed Zai tribe had been holding the paramilitary troops for the past week. The group is also planning to release two government officials Monday, the sources said.
Although the forces will pull out from the Wana area, they will remain in the southern Waziristan province near the border with Afghanistan.
U.S. officials have long said they believe al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are hiding in the remote mountain region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Sources in Pakistan last week said they believed Zawahiri was in the area where the fighting was most intense, although they have since backed away from those claims. U.S. officials have aid they had no information that Zawahiri was present last week.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said Saturday the region is a hotbed of terrorism, and that he will not back down from the fight to root them out. He also accused al Qaeda of two recent assassination attempts on him.
"They carry out terrorism here," he said. "So, therefore, we have to act, and we will act strongly. We will not allow Pakistan to be damaged."
He said the government has "tried everything" in working with tribal groups, offering amnesty to those who cooperate.
"We've said, 'If you surrender, you will not be handed over. You can live here, stay here. But live in peace. Don't bring a bad name to Pakistan. Don't try to do something which will harm this country.' [But] nobody surrenders," Musharraf said.
In an audiotape released last week, Zawahiri urged Pakistani tribes to resist government troops, calling on them to overthrow Musharraf.
"Every Muslim in Pakistan must do his or her best in getting rid of this government, which cooperates with the enemies," he said in the tape first aired by the Arab news network Al-Jazeera.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed told CNN in response, "We will finish all these terrorists wherever they are."
-- CNN Producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report
