DAR AL ISLAM - PAKISTAN: AL QUEDA INVOLVED IN THE LAL MASJIC MAKE UP

Al-Qa'ida 'directed mosque siege'
by Bruce Loudon

AL-QA'IDA was behind last week's uprising at Islamabad's Red Mosque, according to secret Pakistani government documents revealed as thousands of troops were deployed across the country yesterday.

The troop reinforcements came after a series of deadly suicide bomb attacks left scores of soldiers dead and maimed in revenge attacks by Islamic militants for last week's mosque bloodbath.

In the latest attack, at least 16 Pakistani security officers were killed yesterday in a series of bomb blasts and an exchange of fire with Islamist militants, officials said, adding that the death toll could go higher.

The blasts hit as a convoy of police and paramilitary troops passed through the town of Matta near the hilly Swat area, a well-known Taliban stronghold.

The attacks accompanied heightening outrage among militants over the storming of the mosque and intensifying speculation about the number of women and children who died.

They coincided with leaked reports from the Government claiming that documents recovered from the mosque and the neighbouring madrassas prove conclusively that al-Qa'ida - and specifically Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri - directed the uprising, maintaining close contact with Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who died in the battle.

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1) Al-Qa'ida 'directed mosque siege'