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EXCLUSIVE: Pakistani Military Sources Say Zawahiri May Be Dead
ABC News ^ | January 13, 2006 | Brian Ross

Posted on 01/13/2006 3:38:41 PM PST by John W

Jan. 13, 2006 — Today, according to Pakistani military sources, U.S. aircraft attacked a compound known to be frequented by high level al Qaeda operatives. Pakistani officials tell ABC News that al Qaeda leader Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, may have been among them.

U.S. intelligence for the last few days indicated that Zawahiri might be in the location or about to arrive, although there is still no confirmation from U.S. officials that he was among the victims.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abcnews; airstrikes; ajntsa; allbullcrapnetwork; alqaeda; alqaedanotvictims; alqaedapakistan; alquedanotvictims; alzawahiri; bushsfault; dead; friday13th; gwot; hesdeadjim; hopefullyadirtnap; maybeheblowedup; msm; osamagoboom; pleasebetrue; possibledirtnap; pressbias; somebodyblowedup; victim; wot; zawahiri
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To: operation clinton cleanup
I get it. Bush was shooting for Kerry, but got Zawahiri by mistake.... now it all makes sense!

ROFL!!

761 posted on 01/13/2006 7:49:17 PM PST by ShowMeMom (America: The home of the FREE because of the BRAVE.)
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To: Dog

Wow, he's about to feel an earthquake!


762 posted on 01/13/2006 7:49:18 PM PST by A Citizen Reporter
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To: operation clinton cleanup

excellent point!


763 posted on 01/13/2006 7:49:22 PM PST by oceanview
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To: Dog

Damn, they're trying to get him to earn those medals.


764 posted on 01/13/2006 7:50:29 PM PST by billhilly
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To: billhilly

LOL!


765 posted on 01/13/2006 7:51:26 PM PST by Dog (When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.)
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To: RushCrush
If this is true, I will be uulating in joy!

Standing by to ululate here as well. May drink a whole lot of beer or champagne, so I can ululate all over the bushes out back.

766 posted on 01/13/2006 7:52:02 PM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Dog
Earlier strike in Pakistan
767 posted on 01/13/2006 7:52:34 PM PST by Straight Vermonter (John 6: 31-69)
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To: operation clinton cleanup
Tapping Kerry's phone while he's out of the country may have turned out to be a pretty good deal.

I imagine the conversation went something like this.

KERRY: So, Ayman, as I was saying, I was in Viet Nam . . .

KABLOOM!!!!

KERRY: Ayman? Ayman? You there?

768 posted on 01/13/2006 7:53:28 PM PST by TravisBickle (The War on Terror: Win It There or Fight It Here)
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To: Hank Rearden
so I can ululate all over the bushes out back.

Easy, nothing has been confirmed yet!

769 posted on 01/13/2006 7:54:07 PM PST by operation clinton cleanup
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To: Straight Vermonter

Question where is Saidgi village in relation to Damadola ?


770 posted on 01/13/2006 7:54:44 PM PST by Dog (When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.)
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To: Hank Rearden

After your post I uulated in my pants.


771 posted on 01/13/2006 7:55:01 PM PST by billhilly
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To: Straight Vermonter

SV I wonder if they were tracking Zawahiri for the last week or so.


772 posted on 01/13/2006 7:55:29 PM PST by Dog (When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.)
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To: Dog; oceanview; operation clinton cleanup

Finally, Batchelor mentioned the strike in Pakistan...but, it was just in passing to John Fund in dicussing Iran.


773 posted on 01/13/2006 7:56:09 PM PST by Txsleuth (Thank you to all that donated on the Freepathon...next time more monthlies!!)
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To: operation clinton cleanup

Sure, it was hidden in his boonie hat!


774 posted on 01/13/2006 7:56:37 PM PST by Straight Vermonter (John 6: 31-69)
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To: TravisBickle
KERRY: So, Ayman, as I was saying, I was in Viet Nam . . .

Haha! Ayman's actions could be understood, under the circumstances...

775 posted on 01/13/2006 7:57:15 PM PST by operation clinton cleanup
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To: operation clinton cleanup

" I get it. Bush was shooting for Kerry, but got Zawahiri by mistake.... now it all makes sense!"

No, Bush figured we better go ahead and take out Mr Z. before Kerry could stab us all in the back with a surrender of the US, again.


776 posted on 01/13/2006 7:58:57 PM PST by lrb111 (Minutemen - Doing jobs the White House won't do.)
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To: ichabod1

I'll never forget his vicious rants from behind the packed prison cell .. I think it was on 60 Secs. about 10 yrs. or so ago .. where he was shouting threats and yelling: "We are Muslims .. we are Muslims!!" Gave me such creeps


777 posted on 01/13/2006 7:59:04 PM PST by STARWISE (Sedition:an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority- to cause the overthrow of govt)
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To: Txsleuth
Finally, Batchelor mentioned the strike in Pakistan...

Guess nobody wants to mention the big matzah ball hanging out there until they get proof. The coal miner story must have spooked them all.

778 posted on 01/13/2006 7:59:35 PM PST by operation clinton cleanup
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To: Straight Vermonter
See also, from www.macleans.ca:

Air strike in Pakistan kills 17 in reported attacks on top al-Qaida leaders

January 13, 2006 - 22:03

Air strike in Pakistan kills 17 in reported attacks on top al-Qaida leaders

DAMADOLA, Pakistan (AP) - A pre-dawn air strike killed at least 17 people in a remote Pakistani tribal area Friday and U.S. networks said jets were targeting a suspected al-Qaida hideout that may have been frequented by high-level operatives, possibly the terror group's No. 2 leader.

Citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, the reports said Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, could have been in the location or about to arrive hit when a U.S. aircraft fired on a compound in the remote Pakistani tribal area Bajur. ABC quoted anonymous Pakistani military sources saying he could have been among five top al-Qaida officials believed killed.

There was no confirmation from either the Pakistani or U.S. government, but a senior Pakistani government official said: "There is 50-50 chance that some al-Qaida personality was at the home" that was hit.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had heard the al-Qaida figure in question may have been al-Zawahri and the information would be clearer later Saturday.

The Pakistani military only confirmed there had been explosions in a remote border village but could not confirm the cause or casualties. The spokesman for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said the incident was still being investigated.

"I am not in a position to say yes or no. We know that media is reporting it but we have no such information, or any details. We are still investigating this matter," Maj.-Gen. Shaukat Sultan said Saturday.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official said he had no information a top al-Qaida figure had been targeted in the strike.

In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials all said they had no information on the reports concerning al-Zawahri.

A reporter who visited the scene about 12 hours after what villagers said was an air strike saw three destroyed houses, hundreds of metres apart. Villagers, who denied any links to the Taliban or al-Qaida militants, had buried at least 15 people, including women and children and were digging for more bodies in the rubble. There were no security forces in the area.

U.S. Pakistani officials told NBC news U.S. predator drones fired as many as 10 missiles.

Doctors said at least 17 people died in the attack before dawn Friday - the second deadly strike in a week near the Afghan border.

Sahibzada Haroon ur Rashid, a local legislator from a hard-line Islamic party, said it was a U.S. air strike - opposite a region of Afghanistan where Islamic militants are active. But the U.S. military denied knowledge of the incident.

Residents of Damadola, a hillside hamlet about 6.5 kilometres inside northwestern Pakistan, recounted hearing aircraft flying overhead before bombs or missiles crashed through the Pashtun tribal village - blasts that were felt kilometres away.

Militant groups like al-Qaida, the Taliban and the militia of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are believed to be active in the border area but Bajur itself is rarely troubled by violence.

In Kabul, U.S. military spokesman Lieut. Mike Cody said he had no reports on Friday's attack.

The reporter who travelled to Damadola, about 200 kilometres southeast of Islamabad, counted at least 15 fresh graves of victims, buried quickly following Islamic custom. Villagers said more than 30 people had died and others were wounded.

Mohammed Karim, a doctor from a hospital in the main town Bajur - the tribal region where Damadola is located - said 17 or 18 people were killed and two others were treated for their wounds.

Three houses, hundreds of metres apart, were destroyed, with wreckage scattered in craters some three metres deep. Five women were weeping nearby, cursing the attackers. Dozens of others gathered to express condolences.

"My entire family was killed and I don't know whom should I blame for it," said Sami Ullah, a 17-year old student, as he shifted debris from his ruined home with a hoe.

"I only seek justice from God."

He said 24 of his family members were killed - among them his parents, four brothers, three sisters-in-law, three sisters and five nephews. He said his father, Bakht Pur, had been a labourer.

Digging through the cement rubble of his home, Shah Zaman, who lost two sons and a daughter, recounted hearing planes at about 2:40 a.m. local time.

"I ran out and saw planes were dropping bombs," said Zaman, 40.

"I saw my home being hit."

"I don't know who carried out this attack and why. We were needlessly attacked."

"We are law-abiding people. I think we were targeted wrongly," he said.

In Afghanistan's eastern province Kunar, which borders Bajur, deputy provincial governor Noor Mohammed denied a rocket attack had been launched from inside Afghanistan.

"I have been in touch with all the security forces in Kunar and no one has heard about this," he said.

The attack was the latest in a series of apparent air or missile strikes on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan, unexplained by authorities but widely suspected to have targeted terror suspects or Islamic militants.

Last Saturday, an attack on a cleric's home in North Waziristan, about 200 kilometres southwest of Bajur, killed eight people. Local tribesmen said U.S. helicopters launched the attack and took away five tribesmen. Pakistan's government protested to the U.S. military in Afghanistan. The U.S. military denied it had bombed the area.

Last month, a senior al-Qaida suspect from Egypt, Hamza Rabia, was killed in North Waziristan. Pakistan denied residents' claims he died in a U.S. missile strike.

In early 2004, during a major Pakistani counter-terrorism operation in neighbouring South Waziristan, Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity al-Zawahri was believed to be hiding in the area but the reports were never substantiated.

Pakistan has tens of thousands of forces deployed along the Afghan border to hunt al-Qaida and Taliban militants and maintains a sensitive alliance with the United States in its war on terror, which is opposed by many in this Islamic country of 150 million people. Pakistan said it does not allow Afghan or the 20,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan to operate on its soil.

"Our people say Americans did it," Rashid said.

"If it is true, then Pakistan should lodge a strong protest with the U.S. government for killing innocent people."

Copyright by Rogers Media Inc.
May not be reprinted or republished without permission.
 
This story can be found at:
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w011353A

779 posted on 01/13/2006 7:59:45 PM PST by RonDog
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To: Dog

Even my local news at 10, has now teased the story.


780 posted on 01/13/2006 8:00:22 PM PST by A Citizen Reporter
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