ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 3 (UPI) -- The Pakistani army says its forces captured a network of caves near the Afghan border built to serve as the hub of the Taliban and al-Qaida.
The caves, located near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal agency, were also used to shelter Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No.2 al-Qaida leader after Osama bin Laden, The Times of London reported Wednesday.
"It was the main hub of militancy where al-Qaida operatives had moved freely," said Pakistani regional commander, Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, who took reporters on a tour of the caves.
The Pakistani army has been fighting in the Bajaur region since August 2008 and this was the first time its forces had entered the formerly insurgent-controlled Damadola in the region's snow-capped peaks.
"Al-Qaida was there. They had occupied the ridges. There were 156 caves designed as a defensive complex," said Khan, adding his Frontier Corps forces had killed 75 foreign and local militants before clearing the area.
The Times report said there were blankets and pillows in the caves left behind by the fleeing insurgents.
Zawahiri, for whose capture there is a $25 million reward, had "been spotted here by the local residents in the past," a Pakistani colonel said.
The Times report said the former Egyptian doctor narrowly escaped a drone missile strike in Damadola in January 2006.
Zawahiri reportedly had married a local girl and would regularly travel between Bajaur and the Afghan province of Kunar, the colonel said.
