H S Rao

London/Islamabad, Oct 30 (PTI) Presence of a fair sprinkling of European recruits of Taliban and al-Qaeda has come to light with Pakistani forces fighting their way into the terrorist bastion of Waziristan, seizing a number of passports that may be linked to 9/11 suspects and also terror strikes elsewhere.

Soldiers displayed passports to foreign and local journalists taken to the war zone for a first look of the lawless territory, where the US has long suspected that top al-Qaeda leadership is sheltering.

The passports provide strongest evidence yet of direct links between Pakistani militants and al-Qaeda high command, media reports said.

The documents of Said Behaji, a member of the Hamburg cell that set up the 9/11 attacks, show him to be in Pakistan since September 2001. Behaji is said to have fled Germany before the New York bombings.