A Pakistani army commander says his forces are driving militants linked to al Qaida out of the mountains near the Afghan border, but the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden remains unknown.
The army field commander Major General Niaz Khatak told journalists on Saturday that the terrorists are leaving their hideouts in the South Waziristan region and are now on the run.
The Pakistani military has been battling several hundred militants, backed by foreign fighters, since March. The commander says the number of militants in the area has dropped to about 100 since the operation in South Waziristan began.
Aside from Osama bin Laden, the commander says the hunt for Pakistani militant leader, Abdullah Mehsud, has so far proven unsuccessful.
Mehsud is a former inmate of the U.S. military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is the accused mastermind of last month's kidnapping of two Chinese engineers. One of the Chinese men was killed in a rescue attempt and the other was freed.