Al Qaeda entrenched in Pak, Osama protected by tribals: US

WASHiINGTON: Al-Qaeda is becoming increasingly active in the ungoverned tribal areas of Pakistan but the US fears a military strike could spawn new militant activity across the country, top American intelligence officials said.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, officials from the CIA and the Defence Intelligence Agency said Al-Qaeda has become entrenched in a remote corner of Pakistan near the Afghan border, with Osama bin Laden himself believed to be protected by local tribal leaders.

"The Qaeda seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan. We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications," said John Kringen, the CIA's director of intelligence.

But revealing the dilemma in trying to deal with the problem, Thomas Fingar, Deputy Director at the Directorate of National Intelligence said 'there is the risk of taking actions, that could lead to developments in all of Pakistan, that would increase the problem.'

"There are an awful lot of potential recruits that are being engaged in the struggle in Kashmir that are held in check by the security forces in the rest of Pakistan. So it is not too great an exaggeration to say there is some risk of turning a problem in northwest Pakistan into the problem of all of Pakistan," he said.

Kringen said bin Laden was thought to be alive in the remote tribal areas of Pakistan.