Posted on 12/03/2005 11:19:05 AM PST by GVnana
Officials: CIA missile strike kills al-Qaida No. 3
Terrorist group's operational leader Rabia killed in Pakistan
By Robert Windrem and Carol Grisanti
NBC News and news services
Updated: 12:20 p.m. ET Dec. 3, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The operational commander of al-Qaida and possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, Hamza Rabia, was killed early Thursday morning by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials told NBC News.
Pakistan's president later confirmed the militant leader's death.
“Yes indeed, 200 percent. I think he was killed the day before yesterday if I’m not wrong,” President Pervez Musharraf told reporters as he arrived in Kuwait on an official visit on Saturday.
While Pakistani officials publicly said Rabia died in a blast caused by explosives stored in a house for bomb-making, officials speaking on condition of anonymity told NBC News he was killed by a CIA missile strike carried out by an unmanned Predator airplane.
Caption: Pakistani tribesmen are seen on Thursday displaying a piece of a U.S. made laser guided missile, found in the debris of a house which was destroyed after alleged American Predator aircraft, which flew from bordering Afghanistan, fired on the house, killing five people including a senior al-Qaida commander identified as Abu Hamza Rabia.
Pakistan's government has always been reticent to admit that Predators are used in Pakistani airspace to hunt down al-Qaida operatives.
The sources told NBC News Rabia was one of five men killed at a safehouse located in the village of Asorai, in western Pakistan, near the town of Mirali.
Continued http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10303175/
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I haven't been able to locate a photo of Rabia. This information from the Daily Times of Pakistan dated August 14, 2004: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-8-2004_pg7_38
"… Officials said a Libyan believed to be the head of Al Qaeda’s terror operations is the top target of security forces hunting key operatives of Bin Laden’s network.
Abu Faraj Farj, a former personal assistant of Bin Laden, masterminded the two December attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, said a senior intelligence official closely involved in the Al Qaeda crackdown.
“Farj was a personal assistant of bin Laden and our information is he is the current top operational chief of the network,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Farj heads Al Qaeda’s clandestine operational apparatus in Pakistan and also controls Al Qaeda’s sleeper cells in other countries to plot terror strikes.” Farj is on the run with an Egyptian cohort, Hamza Rabia, the official said.
Farj and Rabia are on the US Central Intelligence Agency’s list of 10 most wanted terror suspects with a five million dollar bounty on their heads, the official said.
Information gleaned from recently arrested key Al Qaeda suspects has given the security agencies valuable leads as to their whereabouts, he said.
Any funeral or wedding claims yet?
Looks like a work accident.
“Yes indeed, 200 percent. I think he was killed the day before yesterday if I’m not wrong...”
Well, that seems almost pretty certain.
LOL. I'd love to know if someone was actually paid the bounty. Wouldn't you?
Those three kids in the background are spooky looking - reminds me of 'Hitler Youth'.
AMF
Here is the first posting I saw on this subject.
Some of these guys like Zarqawi have been killed so many times I think we might need 1200% confidence.
Good riddance to another low-life terrorists. Looks like the CIA is getting in some good knocks these days. Way to go Porter Goss!
Yeah, well maybe the locals are getting a taste of what it's like to be bombed to smithereens when you can't see it coming.
We left a note? Cool.
This must be the 15th Al Quaeda number 3 to be killed..
boo effing hoo
</snickering>
Unfortunately, since this has happened before and will happen again and agin, it turns into a fruitless pursuit. Just like the oldest man in the world dying! There will always be an oldest man in the world, and there will always be #3 man in a-Qaida. You can't kill all the oldest men in the world, can ya?! What to do?
It looks like a Fed Ex envelope
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