PESHAWAR, 22 April 2006 — An Arab militant killed by Pakistani security forces was an Al-Qaeda “bagman”, a senior official said yesterday.
The militant, shot dead in the Bajaur tribal region on Thursday, is believed to have distributed funds to families left behind in Pakistan and Afghanistan by Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi and others, the security official in North West Frontier Province told Reuters.
He was also involved in organizing attacks on US-led coalition and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan. “His death is quite a significant blow to Al-Qaeda,” the official said. The man, named as Marwan Hadid Al-Suri, 38, was an explosives expert and was wanted by the United States. The official said they found a notebook on Al-Suri that contained a ledger listing Al-Qaeda members and their family members who were to receive funds. Zarqawi was on the list. The official referred to Al-Suri as a “bagman” for Al-Qaeda. “He was giving them money every three months,” he said. The location of the relatives was not given.
Al-Suri had married an Afghan woman, as had many foreign Al-Qaeda fighters. The Pakistani security official, who requested anonymity, said Al-Suri, which means Syrian, was involved in Al-Qaeda operations in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad and moved to Bajaur in 2005 to organize attacks in the Afghan province of Kunar.
He is believed to have escaped a US airstrike on a house in Damadola village in Bajaur in January that US officials said had been targeted at Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahri.
The security official said Al-Suri was carrying a notebook that contained instructions, in Arabic, and diagrams of circuits for bombs and plastic explosives.
Suri was killed in a shoot-out in Bajaur’s main town of Khar when he opened fire on troops who had stopped the minibus he was traveling in. He killed one of the soldiers.
Al-Suri’s killing came a week after the security forces killed an Egyptian Al-Qaeda member wanted for involvement in the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Meanwhile, a self-proclaimed Pakistani Taleban leader yesterday invited people to come to Afghanistan to fight a holy war against US-led forces, local officials said.
“We are leaving for Afghanistan tomorrow, those who want to participate in Jihad can join us,” Asmatullah Shaheen told a gathering of more than 300 people in Jandola town, near the restive tribal region of South Waziristan, they said. Officials did not say if there was any immediate response to his call.
