Posted on 06/01/2010 11:45:15 AM PDT by Schnucki
US intelligence agencies believe that a senior al-Qaeda leader has been killed in a missile strike in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The CIA has stepped up the pace of unmanned aerial drone attacks, targeting not only high-level al-Qaeda and Taliban targets but largely unknown foot soldiers as well.
A US official said that Sheikh Sa'id al-Masri, also known as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was widely seen as the group's third in command and its main conduit to leader Osama bin Laden. As al-Qaeda's chief operating officer, he had a hand in everything from finances to operational planning.
"We have strong reason to believe ... that al-Masri was killed recently in Pakistan's tribal areas," the official said. "In terms of counterterrorism, this would be a big victory.
"His death would be a major blow to al-Qaeda, which in December lost both its internal and external operations chiefs."
Al-Qaeda confirmed that al-Masri had been killed in a message carried by the SITE group, which monitors Islamist websites. The message did not give any details about the circumstances of his death other than to speak of his "martyrdom".
The message, posted on jihadist forums on May 31, said that his wife, three of his daughters, his granddaughter, and other men, women, and children, were killed.
"His death will only be a severe curse by his life upon the infidels. The response is near. That is sufficient," according to the message translated by SITE.
In March, US officials said a drone strike in Pakistan killed a key al-Qaeda planner.
CIA Director Leon Panetta has asserted that attacks against al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal regions appear to have driven bin Laden and other leaders deeper into hiding, leaving the organisation incapable of planning sophisticated operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Are we sure this time? These dudes have a way of popping up somewhere else. Must be lotsa Rich Little type doubles out there....
If you see one Al-Qaeda leader, you see’m all. Each one killed can easily be replaced with a home-grown terrosrist. We have plenty of those.
So Obama has stepped up the drone attacks and blocked the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of Israel. On these two points, good job, Obama!
Hey, I will give credit where credit is due.
I'm shocked, I tell you! Shocked!
Explains why the U.N. is now telling us to stop the drone attacks.
We need the U.N. and the peace protesters as a way to tell which attacks are effective. When they start complaining about some weapon or tactic, it’s a sure bet that the weapon or tactic is working!
The notion that he is in some manner a regular conduit with UBL is being vastly over touted...
Correct you are. Good way of looking at it.
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