ISLAMABAD: A major Arab Al-Qaeda operative was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, a senior security official told reporters yesterday. Five Taleban and four civilians were also killed in actions by local security forces in the volatile region, officials and media reports said.
Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam Al-Saudi, a senior member of Osama Bin Laden’s terror network. They said US intelligence officials had identified him as the main link between Al-Qaeda’s senior command and Taleban networks in the Pakistani border region with Afghanistan.
“He was the man coordinating between Al-Qaeda and Taleban commanders on this side of the border, and also involved in recruiting and training fighters,” an Islamabad-based senior security official said. Sources in the Taleban said Al-Saudi was also a member of Taleban’s supreme council, or Shoura, under its fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar when it moved from Afghanistan to the Pakistani side of the border about a year ago.
“He was closely linked to Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman Al-Zawahri,” a Taleban source added. Following the strike, Zawahri warned US President-elect Barack Obama against sending more troops to Afghanistan saying that US policy was “doomed to failure” in an Internet audio message.
A security official said the US missile strike was carried out on intelligence that Al-Saudi was in a house belonging to a tribesman in the Bannu district, which borders restive North Waziristan.
It was the first alleged US missile strike outside the tribal region which is described by the United States as home to Al-Qaeda’s command and control structure.
At least five Taleban militants were also killed when Pakistani artillery pounded their hide-outs through the night in a restive tribal region near the Afghanistan border, local administration official Mohammad Jamil told reporters.
The clashes took place in the Mamoon and Nawagai areas in Bajaur tribal region, where the military launched an operation against Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in August.
“Troops fired artillery on militant hide-outs and underground bunkers Tuesday night, killing five rebels and wounding three others,” Jamil said.
More than 20 militants and one soldier were killed during last 24 hours in the Swat Valley. According to Swat Media Center, militants and the soldier were killed in two separate clashes between security forces and miscreants in restive Kabal and Gashkor Khawazakhela areas in militancy-hit Swat district.
Meanwhile, the retired head of Pakistan’s elite army commando unit was shot dead yesterday by unidentified gunmen near his house in the capital city of Islamabad, police said. The motive behind the killing of Maj. Gen. Amir Faisal Alvi — who retired two years ago as chief commander of the army’s Special Services Group targeting Islamic militants — was not immediately clear.
“Gen. Alvi left his house in his car when gunmen on a motorbike and in a Pajero (SUV) sprayed bullets at him near his house,” local area police officer Sajid Ahmed told Arab News. Former President Pervez Musharraf had fired him for Army on personal grounds. Alvi commanded the Special Services Group in its covert operations against militants in the tribal regions. Alvi was highly respected soldier of Pakistan Army for his courageous role.
Security has deteriorated alarmingly in Pakistan over recent months with the military attacking Al-Qaeda and Taleban strongholds in the northwest while the militants have responded with attacks on security forces.
