Intelligence

US air strike 'killed al-Qa'eda most wanted'

Telegraph | News | US air strike 'killed al-Qa'eda most wanted'

(Filed: 19/01/2006)

Some of the most wanted al-Qa'eda figures may have been killed in last week's American air strike near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, Pakistani security officials have said.

Protests in Pakistan
The US air strike provoked anger in Pakistan

An al-Qa'eda explosives and chemicals weapons expert and the son-in-law of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, were said to be among those killed on January 13.

The Pakistani government has refused to confirm the identities of the dead, but intelligence officials said that at least four foreign militants were killed in the attack on Damadola village.

The air strike, which killed 18 people and provoked protest from the Pakistani government and people, was targeting al-Qa'eda number two Zawahiri, but he was not at the site of the bombing and is reported to still be alive.

One of the senior al-Qa'eda operatives believed killed in the attack was Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, an explosives and poisons expert who carried a $5 million (£2.8 million) FBI bounty on his head.

Also believed dead is Abdul Rehman Al-Misri al Maghribi, Zawahiri's son-in-law, who was responsible for the terrorist organisation's media department.

A Pakistani official said that another operative killed in the strike was Abu Ubaida, an al-Qa'eda chief in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. He said that no bodies have been found.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the Pakistani Information Minister, acknowledged that "a few militants" had been killed in the attack, but said their bodies had not been recovered and their identity was under investigation.

The CIA and Pentagon would not comment on the incident or the reported identities of the dead.

15 January 2006: Pakistan fury as CIA airstrike on village kills 18

January 19, 2006 at 07:58 AM in Al Qaeda | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home