Pakistan "missed chance" to catch al Qaeda deputy

By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces missed a chance to catch al Qaeda second in command Ayman al Zawahri, the government's senior Interior Ministry official said on Monday.

Zawahri and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden have been in hiding since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and are both believed to be in ethnic Pashtun tribal lands that straddle northwest Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Rehman Malik did not say when security forces had missed the chance to catch Zawahri or give any more detail about the incident. He also did not say where bin Laden might be.

Malik told a news conference Zawahri was moving between Pakistan's tribal areas and the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktia.

"We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he's moving in Mohmand and, of course, sometimes in Kunar, mostly in Kunar and Paktia," he said.

Mohmand is one of seven Pakistani tribal regions where Malik said both Zawahri and his wife had been.

Malik said Pakistani Taliban were working hand in glove with al Qaeda, providing them with shelter and acting as their mouthpiece.

"They have not only connections, I would say Tehrik-e-Taliban is an extension of al Qaeda," he said, referring to a Pakistani Taliban umbrella group which authorities blame for a string of bomb attacks over the past year that have killed hundreds of people.

Pakistan last month banned the Taliban group, which was also accused of the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December.

The United States says al Qaeda and Taliban militants are based in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas where they orchestrate attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plot violence in the West.

The resignation of staunch U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf as president last month raised questions about the government's commitment to the unpopular U.S.-led campaign against militancy.

But U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week he was encouraged by recent Pakistani action against militants, while adding both Pakistan and the United States needed to do more to shore up security. (Editing by Robert Birsel and Robert Hart)