Senior al Qaeda figures believed killed in US strike
ISLAMABAD, Jan 19 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda bomb expert with a $5 million bounty on his head and a son-in-law of the group's No. 2 were among four militants believed killed by a U.S. airstrike last week, Pakistani intelligence sources said on Thursday.
There was no official confirmation, however, and the bodies of militants have not been recovered from the remote tribal area close to the Afghan border which was targeted last Friday,.
Eighteen villagers were killed in the attack, prompting Pakistan to protest against the U.S. action.
Intelligence sources said they believed they knew the names of three men killed in the attack, which U.S. officials say was aimed at al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri.
One of the dead was said to be Abdul Rehman Al-Misri al Maghribi, a son-in-law of Zawahri. Maghribi was responsible for al Qaeda's media department.
Another was Midhat Mursi al-Sayid 'Umar, an expert in explosives and poisons who carried a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head under the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Rewards for Justice programme.
Pakistani officials gave a slightly different spelling for the name, but the FBI says 'Umar ran a training camp at Derunta in Afghanistan and since 1999 had proliferated training manuals containing crude recipes for chemical and biological weapons.
ABC News and the New York Times, citing Pakistani officials, also reported that the 52-year-old Egyptian had been killed, although there was no official confirmation.
"If this person is gone, it is significant. His loss, and the loss of people like him, would certainly be a blow to al Qaeda in the region," said a U.S. counter-terrorism official, who asked not to be identified.
The third man identified by Pakistani intelligence officers was Abu Obaidah al Misri, al Qaeda's chief of operations in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, where U.S. and Afghan forces regularly come under attack from militant groups.
The Pakistani intelligence officers said they were still trying to identify a fourth al Qaeda member who was also believed to have been killed in the airstrike.
"Their bodies are unaccounted for and this information is based on intelligence," one of the Pakistani agents told Reuters. The bodies were taken away by their comrades soon after the attack, according to Pakistani officials.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the government's spokesman, acknowledged for the first time that the U.S. attack had killed anyone other than villagers.
"There were few militants killed in Bajaur. The bodies of these militants were taken away. We are investigating their names," he said.
DRONE STRIKES
The men were believed to have been among a group of al Qaeda militants invited to attend a feast in the village of Damadola, in Pakistan's semi-autonomous Bajaur tribal agency on the border with Afghanistan, to mark the Eid al Adha festival last week.
Officials say pro-militant Muslim clerics removed the bodies from the scene.
Zawahri had been the main target of the attack, U.S. officials said, but Pakistani intelligence sources say he was not present.
Friday's missile strike was the third believed to have been carried out since May by CIA-operated Predator drone aircraft in Pakistani tribal lands near the Afghan border.
Abu Hamza Rabia, an Egyptian said to have been al Qaeda's No. 3 commander, was killed in December, and a known al Qaeda bombmaker, Haitham al-Yemeni, was killed last May.
In both cases Pakistan denied the men were killed by U.S. missiles, although witnesses found U.S. missile parts at the scene and in Rabia's case said they had seen the thin white drone.
Despite Pakistan's diplomatic protest over Friday's attack and loss of life, intelligence sources believe the United States has Pakistan's tacit agreement to conduct such operations on its territory.
President Pervez Musharraf made no mention of the attack in Bajaur during a televised address to the nation on Tuesday.
General Musharraf, who came to power in 1999 at the head of a bloodless military coup, has narrowly survived several assassination attempts since abandoning support for the Taliban militia in Afghanistan in late 2001, and helping the United States to hunt down hundreds of al Qaeda.
There was no official confirmation, however, and the bodies of militants have not been recovered from the remote tribal area close to the Afghan border which was targeted last Friday,.
Eighteen villagers were killed in the attack, prompting Pakistan to protest against the U.S. action.
Intelligence sources said they believed they knew the names of three men killed in the attack, which U.S. officials say was aimed at al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri.
One of the dead was said to be Abdul Rehman Al-Misri al Maghribi, a son-in-law of Zawahri. Maghribi was responsible for al Qaeda's media department.
Another was Midhat Mursi al-Sayid 'Umar, an expert in explosives and poisons who carried a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head under the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Rewards for Justice programme.
Pakistani officials gave a slightly different spelling for the name, but the FBI says 'Umar ran a training camp at Derunta in Afghanistan and since 1999 had proliferated training manuals containing crude recipes for chemical and biological weapons.
ABC News and the New York Times, citing Pakistani officials, also reported that the 52-year-old Egyptian had been killed, although there was no official confirmation.
"If this person is gone, it is significant. His loss, and the loss of people like him, would certainly be a blow to al Qaeda in the region," said a U.S. counter-terrorism official, who asked not to be identified.
The third man identified by Pakistani intelligence officers was Abu Obaidah al Misri, al Qaeda's chief of operations in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, where U.S. and Afghan forces regularly come under attack from militant groups.
The Pakistani intelligence officers said they were still trying to identify a fourth al Qaeda member who was also believed to have been killed in the airstrike.
"Their bodies are unaccounted for and this information is based on intelligence," one of the Pakistani agents told Reuters. The bodies were taken away by their comrades soon after the attack, according to Pakistani officials.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the government's spokesman, acknowledged for the first time that the U.S. attack had killed anyone other than villagers.
"There were few militants killed in Bajaur. The bodies of these militants were taken away. We are investigating their names," he said.
DRONE STRIKES
The men were believed to have been among a group of al Qaeda militants invited to attend a feast in the village of Damadola, in Pakistan's semi-autonomous Bajaur tribal agency on the border with Afghanistan, to mark the Eid al Adha festival last week.
Officials say pro-militant Muslim clerics removed the bodies from the scene.
Zawahri had been the main target of the attack, U.S. officials said, but Pakistani intelligence sources say he was not present.
Friday's missile strike was the third believed to have been carried out since May by CIA-operated Predator drone aircraft in Pakistani tribal lands near the Afghan border.
Abu Hamza Rabia, an Egyptian said to have been al Qaeda's No. 3 commander, was killed in December, and a known al Qaeda bombmaker, Haitham al-Yemeni, was killed last May.
In both cases Pakistan denied the men were killed by U.S. missiles, although witnesses found U.S. missile parts at the scene and in Rabia's case said they had seen the thin white drone.
Despite Pakistan's diplomatic protest over Friday's attack and loss of life, intelligence sources believe the United States has Pakistan's tacit agreement to conduct such operations on its territory.
President Pervez Musharraf made no mention of the attack in Bajaur during a televised address to the nation on Tuesday.
General Musharraf, who came to power in 1999 at the head of a bloodless military coup, has narrowly survived several assassination attempts since abandoning support for the Taliban militia in Afghanistan in late 2001, and helping the United States to hunt down hundreds of al Qaeda.
posted by Marko at 1/19/2006 01:22:00 AM
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