WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, 15 May 2005 — A Yemeni national, considered Al-Qaeda’s No. 3, Haitham Al-Yemeni was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned CIA Predator aircraft in a mountain region near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, US media reported yesterday.
Haitham Al-Yemeni had been under surveillance by the US Central Intelligence Agency as it sought information in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, ABC and NBC televisions said.
However, Pakistan yesterday denied the report.
After the recent capture of Abu Faraj Al-Libbi in Pakistan, Al-Yemeni was considered Al-Qaeda’s No. 3 leader, the report said. NBC said the killing of Al-Yemeni was thought to be linked to the capture of Al-Libbi, but gave no details. According to ABC, the United States acted because officials believed the Yemen militant was about to go into hiding. The CIA would neither confirm nor deny the report.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the suggestion in the report that the killing occurred on Pakistani territory was not true. “Nothing of this sort has happened in the Pakistani territory and if something has happened in any other country, we do not know,” Rashid said.
A US military spokesman in Afghanistan said he had no information about the veracity of the reports.
Al-Yemeni, a native of Yemen known for his bomb-making skills, had been tracked in the hope that he would help lead the United States to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, intelligence officials were quoted as saying by ABC.
The CIA is authorized to target top Al-Qaeda operatives anywhere in the world, ABC said, adding that it was unsure whether Pakistan had been informed in advance of the US decision to stage the attack.
Former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vince Cannistraro, quoted by ABC, said Al-Yemeni’s death was “an important step that has been taken in that it has eliminated another level of experienced leadership from the directorate of Al-Qaeda itself.”
This would be the fourth known time the CIA Predator has opened fire on Al-Qaeda targets, ABC said.
Six suspected extremists, including Qaed Salim Sinan Al-Harethi, a close associate of Bin Laden, were killed in Yemen in November 2002. Officials said that on two other occasions the Predator has been used to attack people mistakenly thought to be Bin Laden.
Pakistani Army troops have been hunting Al-Qaeda militants in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan since late 2003, but the government prohibits foreign forces operating in its territory. — Additional input from agencies.
