Top Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan killed: US official

THE STANS

Top Al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan set up major attacks
The head of Al-Qaeda operations in Pakistan, Usama al-Kini, who was killed in a suspected US missile strike last week, set up several major attacks here in less than two years, security officials say. Pakistani officials confirmed Friday that Al-Kini, a Kenyan national, and his deputy Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan were killed on January 1 in South Waziristan near the Afghan border, following a report in the Washington Post. "There is every reason to believe that these two top terrorist figures are dead," a US counterterrorism official told AFP in Washington. Senior security officials in Islamabad confirmed that Al-Kini led Al-Qaeda's operations in Pakistan, and while they would not confirm or deny his death, they said his killing would relieve the security apparatus of a "big worry". "If he is dead, it relieves us of a big worry because this man was financing high-profile terror attacks in Pakistan," one top official told AFP.

The officials said Al-Kini, also known as Azmaray, or Lion in the local Pashtu language, first became known to intelligence officials in 2007. At that time, a suspect arrested in connection with an attack on a Pakistan Air Force bus in Sargodha in central Punjab province told interrogators Al-Kini had been the main financier of the plot. The suspect identified as Omar Farooq, who is now in jail, told his interrogators at the time that he had met Al-Kini in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan district -- the same area where Al-Kini was killed. Security officials said al-Kini was allegedly connected to at least half a dozen major attacks in Pakistan, including last year's suicide attacks on the Danish embassy and the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

Six people were killed in the attack at the Danish embassy in June 2008, while the truck bombing of the Marriott last September killed 60 people. The Kenyan national was also linked to a July attack in the Pakistani capital that killed 11 policemen. Al-Kini was also linked to a failed assassination attempt on late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto when she returned to Pakistan in October 2007. She was killed two months later in a gun and suicide attack in Rawalpindi. The two men were born in Kenya, according to the State Department's Rewards for Justice website. Al-Kini, born Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam in Mombasa, was 32. Swedan's birth date is given on the website as either April 1960 or 1969.

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Jan 8, 2009
The head of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed in the past days, a US counterterrorism official told AFP on Thursday, reportedly struck by a missile fired from an unmanned drone.

The men are believed to be Kenyan national Usama al-Kini, described as Al-Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan, and his lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"There is every reason to believe that these two top terrorist figures are dead," said the source, adding that the pair was killed "within the last week."

Officials believe al-Kini was behind the September 2008 truck bombing of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel that killed 60 people, and is linked to a failed assassination attempt on late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

The counterintelligence source did not say how the men died, but according to the Washington Post, which first broke the story, the Al-Qaeda operatives were killed in a January 1 missile attack in northern Pakistan.

Local security officials told AFP on January 1 that an unmanned CIA aircraft had fired three missiles in the Karikot area of South Waziristan, killing five suspected militants.

The New Years strike occurred near Karikot in South Waziristan, the Post reported.

The two men were both born in Kenya, according to the State Department's Rewards for Justice website. Al-Kini, born Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam in Mombasa, was 32. Swedan's birth date is given on the website as either April 1960 or 1969.

The pair died after being struck with 45 kilo (100-pound) Hellfire missiles fired from a pilotless Predator drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Post reported.

The CIA declined to comment on the strikes, but an official told the Post that the men were killed in a strike on a building being used for explosives training.

"They died preparing new acts of terror," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The two men are also on the FBI's most wanted list for links with the August 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa.

Both have been indicted in connection to the bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi for "murder of US nationals outside the United States; conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the United States; and attack on a federal facility resulting in death," according to rewardsforjustice.net.

The State Department website maintains lists of current reward offers for wanted persons designated as terrorists by the US government.

The autonomous tribal area of northwest Pakistan has been wracked by violence since hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels sought refuge in the region after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Pakistan has repeatedly protested to the United States that the drone strikes violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the 160 million people of the nuclear-armed Islamic nation.

President Asif Ali Zardari has promised zero tolerance for such violations, but some officials say there is a tacit understanding between the US and Pakistani militaries to allow such action.

A US drone attack in November killed Rashid Rauf, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot, as well as an Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative, security officials have said.

More than two dozen similar strikes have been carried out since August 2008, killing more than 200 people, most of them militants.

Since its founding in 1984 Rewards for Justice program has paid out 77 million dollars to over 50 individuals for "information that prevented international terrorist attacks or helped bring to justice those involved in prior acts," according to the website.

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THE STANS

Turkish editor risks jail for reports on rebel attack

Istanbul (AFP) Jan 6, 2009
A newspaper editor faces up to five years in jail for publishing reports that accused the Turkish army of ignoring intelligence on a deadly Kurdish rebel raid, the daily's chief editor said Tuesday.

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