The apartment building in a run-down commercial neighborhood of Karachi called Phase II had been under surveillance as a possible al-Qaeda safe house for weeks, following leads from the CIA. But when a small troop of Pakistani intelligence operatives and commandos started their raid in the early hours of last Wednesday, they didn't expect fierce resistance. Nor, according to Pakistani intelligence sources, did they expect to net one of the biggest fish in the war against terrorism.
It would be a morning of surprises. As the Pakistanis crept up the stairwell to the fifth-floor apartment, a grenade exploded in their path....