Arab and Asian Al Qaeda Killed in Pakistan Airstrike

UPDATE!!! OMG! An islamic website is reporting that Abu Laith al Libi WAS KILLED in this airstrike! holy shit! If that is true it is huge!!!! beyond huge. This will all have to be confirmed by wire services but this would be the biggest kill for the U.S. in a very long time.


Holy smokes! This is taking my breath away. In the airstrike that killed 13 al Qaeda members in the NW Pakistani area of Waziristan a couple of days ago, new information has come out that is startling. That info is:

1. The airstrike was carried out by U.S. forces! Yes, U.S. forces killed the al Qaeda members INSIDE OF PAKISTAN by missiles fired by the U.S. in Afghanistan.
2. The attack was targeting two major al Qaeda leaders and the dead reveal that all 13 dead al Qaeda are Asians and Arabs.

It appears that the al Qaeda targets, Abu Laith al Libi and Abu Obaidah al Masri, were not at the location but more information will be coming.
The key issue is the U.S. involvement here and whether we had the blessings of Musharraf and how this will be perceived by the Taliban and supporters in NW Pakistan. There are some peace negotiations going on with Pakistan now and this could really make it dicy.
Either way, this is incredibly good news - the word is out in Pakistan for all al Qaeda and Taliban that the U.S. is watching them and is NOT afraid to take their asses out!

I encourage you to read the full story from The Long War Journal here.

Arab, Asian al Qaeda operatives reported killed in North Waziristan raid
By Bill RoggioJanuary 31, 2008 11:08 AM

The Jan. 29 airstrike against a Taliban safe house in Pakistan's North Waziristan may have targeted two senior al Qaeda leaders, the Pakistani press is reporting. The airstrike was carried out by US forces in Afghanistan and killed 13, according to local tribesman in the town of Khushali Tari Khel near Mir Ali on the Pakistan-Afghan frontier. Seven Arab members of al Qaeda and six Central Asian operatives were reported killed in the attack. The targets of the strike may have been Al Qaeda leaders Abu Laith al Libi and Abu Obaidah al Masri.

Two senior al Qaeda leaders, Abu Laith al Libi and Abu Obaidah al Masri, were believed to be the targets of the strike, The News reported. A Taliban spokesman denied the al Qaeda leaders were the location of the attack. One of al Libi's deputies may have been killed in the strike.
Abu Laith al Libi is a military commander in Afghanistan and also serves as an al Qaeda spokesman. Abu Obaidah al Masri is al Qaeda’s operations chief for the Kunar, Afghanistan. Kunar is a strategic hub for al Qaeda operations in the northeast. Obaidah was thought to have been killed in the January 2006 airstrike on a compound in the Bajaur, Pakistan tribal agency.
At the time, anonymous Pakistani intelligence officials told U.S. officials that claimed six senior al Qaeda operatives were killed in the attack. Pakistani intelligence claimed Midhat Mursi al Sayid Umar (Abu Khabab), al Qaeda's WMD expert; Abdul Rahman al Maghribi, Zawahiri's son-in-law and an al Qaeda military commander; Marwan al Suri, the Waziristan operations chief; Khalid Habib, the commander of southeastern Afghanistan commander; Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, a member of al Qaeda's military committee; and Obaidah were killed in the missile attack. The Washington Post reported almost two years later that they had, in fact, survived the attack.