UK's SAS Joins Kashmir Hunt for Bin Laden -Paper
Fri Feb 22, 8:59 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - British special forces are hunting for Osama bin Laden in the Indian state of Kashmir after intelligence reports said he had sought the protection of an extremist Islamic group, the Daily Telegraph said on Saturday.

 
The newspaper said soldiers from the secretive Special Air Service Regiment had joined members of Delta Force, the U.S. equivalent of the SAS, to hunt the Saudi-born militant, who is suspected of masterminding September's attacks on America.

A spokeswoman for Britain's Ministry of Defense said it did not comment on the activities of special forces. The Foreign Office was not immediately available for comment.

The decision to send in special forces came after a visit by British Prime Minister to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan last month, the newspaper said.

Blair visited mainly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan and tried to defuse the latest tensions between the two nuclear-armed foes that had led to a build-up of military forces on both sides of their mutual border.

He said Pakistan had to get tough on terrorism and India had to be open to talks on the emotive Kashmir issue. The neighbors have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two over Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.

Blair's shuttle diplomacy was followed by a visit from Secretary of State Colin Powell in a bid to defuse the tension.

The Daily Telegraph said that at about the time of Powell's visit, Indian intelligence told the CIA they believed bin Laden was hiding in the mountains in Kashmir, protected by the Pakistani militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

The newspaper said Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was closely linked to bin Laden's al Qaeda network and had kidnapped a number of westerners, including two Britons who were still missing.

Amjad Hussain, sought as a key accomplice in the kidnapping of murdered U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl and known to him as Imtiaz Siddiqui, is believed to be a member of the group.

The Daily Telegraph quoted a senior defense source who recently returned from the region as saying that SAS troops were "acting in an advisory role" for Indian Army special forces.

It said the SAS were under strict orders to stay away from firefights and collect intelligence, amid fears that military intervention might ignite India and Pakistan's border conflict.

Newspaper reports late last year said British and U.S. special forces had played a key role against Taliban fighters.

At the time, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said four SAS men had been flown back to Britain after being wounded in Afghanistan but he refused to go into detail.