Pakistan: U.S. drone kills senior al-Qaeda leader

[jimnyc]

Another one bites the dust. One by one is fine by me, so long as they keep dropping.


PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A U.S. drone strike has killed a senior al-Qaida leader in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said, in the latest blow to the global terrorist network.

Sheik Khalid bin Abdel Rehman al-Hussainan, who was also known as Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, was killed when missiles slammed into a house Thursday near Mir Ali, one of the main town's in the North Waziristan tribal area, the officials said.

Al-Kuwaiti earlier this year replaced Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaida's second in command, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan in June, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

But al-Kuwaiti appeared to be much less widely known and was not part of the U.S. State Department's list of most wanted terrorists, as al-Libi had been.

Covert CIA drone strikes have killed a series of senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders in Pakistan's tribal region over the past few years. But the attacks are controversial because the secret nature of the program makes it difficult to determine how many civilians are being killed.

Pakistani officials often criticize the strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty, which has helped make them extremely unpopular in the country. But senior Pakistani officials are known to have cooperated with strikes in the past, and many people believe they still do.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/12/09/pakistan-us-drone-kills-senior-al-qaida-leader/1756663/

[aboutime]

Makes me wonder. "WHICH NUMBER TWO AL-QAEDA leader was that?"

They seem to have so many TOP GUYS. Can't imagine what the guys on the bottom are doing?

[Kathianne]

Hot Air has some analysis of an AP article wondering about the past 10 days and 4 dead leaders:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/12/09/somethings-up-four-major-al-qaeda-commanders-killed-in-pakistani-tribal-areas-in-10-days/


Something’s up: Four major Al Qaeda commanders killed in Pakistani tribal areas — in 10 days
posted at 11:49 am on December 9, 2012 by Allahpundit (http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/author/allahpundit/)

At least one of them was a very big fish (http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/07/15760065-senior-al-qaida-leader-killed-in-drone-strike-in-pakistan-jihadis-us-officials-say?lite).


Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan, aka Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti, was killed in Pakistan while eating breakfast, according to the accounts. The 46-year-old cleric was seen as part of the “very top tier” of al-Qaida’s remaining leaders in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden, according to one expert on the terror group…


“That’s a big gap in the leadership,” said [Evan] Kohlmann, who is also a Justice Department consultant. “He was the last senior Al-Qaida leader in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area who was, one, from the Arabian Peninsula and, two, who had serious clerical credentials. Now there is no obvious publicly recognizable candidate left to succeed Zawahiri.”…


Al-Hussainan is the highest ranking al-Qaida official to be killed since [Atiyah Abdel Rahman].



Unless I’ve missed something, with Hussainan, Rahman, Abu Yahya al-Libi, and Ilyas Kashmiri all dead, AQ’s hierarchy now basically consists of Zawahiri on top and then a swarm of younger inexperienced no-names far beneath him who are trying to hold the group together by filling emerging leadership voids. But never mind that; the interesting bit here is the timing.

Hussainan was killed on Friday and today we get this (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/09/us-pakistan-drone-qaeda-idUSBRE8B802620121209):


A U.S. drone attack killed a senior al Qaeda commander in Pakistan’s northwest on Sunday, military intelligence officials said, the second militant leader to be killed in strikes by the unmanned aircraft in three days.


The attack killed Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor and three others in a village close to Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.



According to Bill Roggio (http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/12/us_drone_strike_kill_16.php), two other AQ capos were killed in drone strikes in South Waziristan on November 29 and December 1. Not only that, but those strikes were the first U.S. attacks in 36 days, the second-longest operational pause in drone warfare in Pakistan since 2008. What gives? Did the U.S. have a bead on these guys all along but decided to hold off while trying to rebuild relations with Pakistan, or did we stumble into some kind of intelligence windfall? Maybe it’s a bit of both: Coincidentally, Pakistan’s foreign minister declared on November 28 — a day before the first new drone strike — that relations with the U.S. have now been fully repaired (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-pakistan-usa-idUSBRE8AR0R320121128). Could be that ISI, as a token of goodwill, decided to drop a dime on a bunch of Al Qaeda bigwigs, with the U.S. given a green light by Pakistani military leaders to go ahead and take them out.


Exit question: But what does ISI get in return from us? Hmmmmmmm. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/world/asia/us-planning-a-force-to-stay-in-afghanistan.html?pagewanted=all)

[jafar00]

Being named Al Qaeda #2 seems to be a bit of a death sentence. It is well deserved though :clap: