PESHAWAR: A US drone strike has killed a senior Al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan’s tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said, in the latest blow to the global terrorist network.
Sheikh Khalid bin Abdel Rehman Al-Hussainan, who was also known as Abu Zaid Al-Kuwaiti, was killed when missiles slammed into a house Thursday near Mir Ali, one of the main town’s in the North Waziristan tribal area, the officials said.
Al-Kuwaiti earlier this year replaced Abu Yahya Al-Libi, Al-Qaeda’s second in command, who was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan in June, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
But Al-Kuwaiti appeared to be much less widely known and was not part of the US State Department’s list of most wanted terrorists, as Al-Libi had been.
Covert CIA drone strikes have killed a series of senior Al-Qaeda and Taleban leaders in Pakistan’s tribal region over the past few years. But the attacks are controversial because the secret nature of the program makes it difficult to determine how many civilians are being killed.
Pakistani officials often criticize the strikes as a violation of the country’s sovereignty, which has helped make them extremely unpopular in the country. But senior Pakistani officials are known to have cooperated with strikes in the past, and many people believe they still do.
Al-Kuwaiti’s wife and daughter were wounded in the drone attack, according to the intelligence officials. His wife died a day later at a hospital in Miran Shah, another main town in North Waziristan.
Al-Kuwaiti was buried in Tappi village near Mir Ali on Friday, the officials said.
A Pakistani Taleban commander who frequently visits North Waziristan said he met some Arab fighters on Saturday who were “very aggrieved.” The Arabs told him they lost a “big leader” in a drone strike, but would not reveal his name or his exact position in Al-Qaeda.
The Taleban commander spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of revealing his identity to the Pakistani government.
Islamabad hits back
Islamabad has hit back after Afghan President Hamid Karzai claimed an attack on the Afghan intelligence chief was planned in Pakistan, asking him to share evidence instead of leveling allegations.
The assassination attempt on National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Asadullah Khalid was carried out Thursday by an attacker who claimed to be a Taleban peace envoy but had a bomb hidden in his underwear.
President Karzai did not directly blame Pakistan for the attack but said the Taleban would not have been able to carry out the bombing and that “bigger hands were involved.” The Pakistani Foreign Ministry rejected the claim and said it was ready to help investigate what it called “this criminal act.” “Before leveling charges the Afghan government would do well if they shared information or evidence with Pakistan that they might have with regard to the cowardly attack,” the foreign ministry said in a statement issued late Saturday.
The ministry said Kabul would “also do well by ordering an investigation into any lapses in the security arrangements around the NDS chief.” Khalid was being treated at a US-run military hospital at Bagram airbase outside Kabul, where he is in a stable condition, security sources said.
Karzai said the attacker, who came in the name of a guest to meet Khalid, came from Pakistan, adding the “attack was plotted... from the (southwestern) city of Quetta in Pakistan. I will raise this issue with Pakistan.”
Kabul last year blamed Pakistan for the assassination of the head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who also killed by a bomber posing as a Taleban peace envoy. Islamabad rejected that claim.
Relations between the neighbors are often tense and Kabul has accused Pakistan of supporting the Taleban, accusations Islamabad has always rejected, insisting it is committed to fighting the insurgents.
In a statement claiming responsibility for Thursday’s bombing, several hours after it took place at a spy agency guesthouse, the Taleban named the attacker as “hero mujahid Hafiz Mohammad.”
