<i>Times</i>: Bush has last go at nabbing bin Laden

US president enlists UK forces to accomplish goal before he leaves White House, Times reports.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Bin Laden 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
Bin Laden 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
US President George W. Bush is making one last concentrated effort to capture al-Qai'da leader Osama bin Laden before he leaves the White House, The Sunday Times reported. According to Sunday's report, Bush has enlisted British special forces in the renewed search for the elusive arch-terrorist. The paper was quoting defense and intelligence sources in Washington and London. "If [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place," an American intelligence source said. The US-led operations were focusing on the region of northern Pakistan and were sanctioned by the Pakistani government, a UK special forces source was quoted as saying by the newspaper, adding that the operations involved the use of Predator and Reaper drones armed with Hellfire missiles. The growing number of such "clandestine reconnaissance missions" in Pakistan was compared by one US intelligence source with those conducted in Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War. A source in the Pentagon told The Times that the US hoped to push bin Laden towards the Afghan border, where large US forces and bombers were waiting. "They are prepping for a major battle," he said.