Al Queda takes a gut shot

[Mule]

Pakistani Military Sources Say Zawahiri May Be Dead
Forensic Tests to Reveal Fate of al Qaeda No. 2
By BRIAN ROSS
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 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 have been in the location or about to arrive, although there is still no confirmation from U.S. officials that he was among the victims.
Related
Ayman al-Zawahiri: Al Qaeda No. 2

The attack took place early this morning Pakistan time in a small village a few miles from the border with Afghanistan.

Villagers described seeing an unmanned plane circling the area for the last few days and then bombs falling in the early morning darkness.

Eighteen people were killed, according to the villagers, who said women and children were among the fatalities.

But Pakistani officials tell ABC News that five of those killed were high-level al Qaeda figures, and their bodies are now undergoing forensic tests for positive identification.

Officials say Zawahiri was known to have used safe houses in this area last winter and was believed to be in the area again this winter.

Zawahiri, who appeared just last week in a new videotaped message, had increasingly been taking the operational reins of al Qaeda, and is thought by U.S. officials to be the current true mastermind of the terrorist group.

Pakistani officials tell ABC News that the bodies of the five suspected al Qaeda figures will be recovered at first light in Pakistan, but it will still take a day or two for any kind of positive identification. U.S. officials in Washington did not comment.


All the Al, criminals make it difficult to keep up

Al Zarqawi

Al Zawahiri

Al Capone

Al Gore

Al Franken

Al Sharpton

[Pazuzu]

And?

Were you bringing up that the article, which is 2.5 YEARS old, was not correct? Or did someone just e-mail that to you, which meant some strange force of nature compelled you to post it here?

[svandamme]

you forgot Al Bushwacka

[cashflyer]

It's called time travel, Mike.
Geez!

[RWebb]

c'mon - give the kid a break! he's only in Jr. High

[Mule]

Sorry, this was the correct one. Is that better?
Exclusive: Al Qaeda No. 2 Injured?
Letter Obtained By CBS News Urgently Requests Doctor To Treat Ayman al-Zawahiri

Aug. 1, 2008
Al Qaeda No. 2 Dead?

Lara Logan reports on evidence which suggests that Ayman al Zawahiri, the second most powerful leader in al Qaeda directly behind Osama Bin Laden, may have been critically wounded and possibly dead.

(CBS) Ayman al-Zawahiri - the second most powerful leader in al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden's No. 2 - may be critically wounded and possibly dead, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports exclusively.

CBS News has obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from sources in Pakistan, which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. He's believed to be somewhere in Pakistan's remote tribal areas of Pakistan.

The letter refers to Sheikh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri by name - and says that he is in "severe pain" and his "injuries are infected."

[Following the broadcast of this report, Taliban officials denied that al-Zawahiri was injured or killed in any missile attack.]

The letter is reportedly written by local Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, whose signature and seal are visible on the letter.

The Taliban logo and the Mehsud's seal have been confirmed by experts as legitimate.

The letter is dated July 29 - one day after a U.S. air strike that killed al Qaeda weapons expert Abu Khabab al-Masri, and five other Arabs in South Waziristan.

U.S. authorities have said they do not have information that al-Zawahiri was present during Monday's strike, or that he was injured.

However, a counter-intelligence expert and other U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that the U.S. is looking into reports that al-Zawahiri is dead.

Logan reports that while there have been false death rumors regarding al-Zawahiri before, there have been no denials yet from Pakistan, the U.S. or al Qaeda Web sites.

[Mule]

I know you guys hate to see ill befall an an enemy of America. Sorry.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Mule

Sorry, this was the correct one. Is that better?

Yes.

Originally Posted by Mule

I know you guys hate to see ill befall an an enemy of America. Sorry.

Don't act like an idiot, it doesn't fit you very well.

[island911]

Originally Posted by svandamme

you forgot Al Bushwacka

Funny ..even if just another Bush-blame; still funny.

[cashflyer]

I'm not in favor of supporting America's enemies. Or my enemies.

But time travel paradoxes scare the bejezus out of me.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Don't act like an idiot, it doesn't fit you very well.

Yes it does, it fits him very well!

[m21sniper]

Al-Qaida: Explosives expert wanted by US killed

By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 24 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida confirmed Sunday the death of a top commander accused of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 American sailors on the USS Cole eight years ago.

Abu Khabab al-Masri, who had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States, is believed to have been killed in an airstrike apparently launched by the U.S. in Pakistan last week.

An al-Qaida statement posted on the Internet said al-Masri and three other top figures were killed and warned of vengeance for their deaths. It did not say when, where or how they died but said some of their children were killed along with them.

Pakistani authorities have said they believe al-Masri is one of six people killed in an airstrike on July 28 on a compound in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.

The U.S. military has not confirmed it was behind the missile strike. But similar U.S. attacks are periodically launched on militant targets in the tribal border region.

Both Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the rugged and lawless region along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The U.S. Justice Department has accused al-Masri, an Egyptian militant whose real name is Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, of training terrorists to use poisons and explosives.

He is also believed to have helped run al-Qaida's Darunta training camp in eastern Afghanistan until the camp was abandoned amid the 2001 U.S. invasion of the country. There he is thought to have conducted experiments in chemical and biological weapons, testing materials on dogs.

The al-Qaida statement called al-Masri and the other three slain commanders "a group of heroes" and warned of retaliation.

"We tell the enemies of God that God has saved those who will be even more painful for you," it said. "As Abu Khabab has gone, he left behind, with God's grace, a generation of faithful students who will make you suffer the worst torture and avenge him and his brothers."

The statement, whose authenticity could not be independently confirmed, was dated July 30 and signed by al-Qaida's top Afghan leader, Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed. It was posted on an Islamic militant Web site where al-Qaida usually issues official statements and videos of its leaders.

Kamal Shah, a senior official in Pakistan's Interior Ministry, said the government had "no official confirmation as yet" that al-Masri was dead. The White House declined comment Sunday.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials and at least one pro-Taliban militant have said they believed al-Masri had died in the July 28 attack. An American official in Washington had expressed cautious optimism al-Masri, whose pseudonym means "father of the trotting horse, the Egyptian," was among the dead.

Terrorism experts downplayed the significance of al-Masri's death.

"A big name does not mean a big impact on the ground," said Mustafa Alani, director of national security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "The bottom line is that those people are replaceable. The organization has developed in such a way that it can survive and fill in any gap even if Osama bin Laden was to die."

Dia'a Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on terrorism and Islamic movements, said al-Masri's death could hurt morale among al-Qaida's followers, but it wasn't a huge loss for the terror group, especially in Afghanistan.

"Al-Qaida might be facing setbacks in Iraq, but not in Afghanistan ... and any loss will appear (to its fighters) as a triumph against the enemy, not a defeat," Rashwan said.

Little is known about the other three slain commanders. They may also be Egyptian because their pseudonyms included the name "al-Masri," which means Egyptian in Arabic. The Web statement identified the three as Abu Mohammed Ibrahim bin Abi Farag al-Masri, Abdul-Wahab al-Masri and Abu Islam al-Masri.

It gave no details about them beyond calling Abu Mohammed "the holy warrior sheik and tutor." It said some of their children were killed along with them but did not give any further information about them.

CBS News reported Friday that al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2, was killed or critically injured in the July 28 airstrike. CBS said it had obtained a copy of an intercepted letter dated July 29 from unnamed sources in Pakistan in which a Taliban leader urgently requested a doctor to treat bin Laden's top lieutenant.

A Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Umar, denied the report. Pakistan army and intelligence officials said they had no information that al-Zawahri was hit.

_____

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef and Omar Sinan in Cairo and Stephen Graham in Islamabad, Pakistan contributed to this report.

[DaveE]

You guys surprise me, using AP and CBS as sources. It's good news in any case.

[tabs]

Well if Al Zawari is dead then there is one less reason to vote for McCain. Obama ought to do just fine in that case.

[Mule]

Now if we can only get Al Franken!

[jluetjen]

I love this line from the original post...

Villagers described seeing an unmanned plane circling the area for the last few days and then bombs falling in the early morning darkness.

So if the villagers say that they've seen "the unmanned plane circling (sic) the area" for the last few days, we're expected to believe that some AQ leaders would be stupid enough to go there????

... and then in "the early morning darkness" they could see the bombs falling???

Some stories are just stupid on face value!