U.S. Predator Air Strike A Week Ago Killed Al Qaeda's Operations Chief In Pakistan

As is usually the case, it takes a good solid three to five days, sometimes a week to find out exactly who the U.S. has killed in its UAV predator operations in NW Pakistan and this result, which took about a week to come out, was well worth the wait. The chief of operations in Pakistan, Osama al Kini was killed in that strike along with his senior aide and a couple of unnamed jihadists. Great, great score! Here's some of the details from the report at The Long War Journal:

The US killed al Qaeda's chief of operations in the New Year's Day missile strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan, according to a report.
The Jan. 1 attack in the town of Karikot in South Waziristan killed Osama al Kini and his senior aide Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, intelligence officials told The Washington Post. Two other unnamed operatives were also killed in the airstrike.

Both al Kini and his aide had $5 million bounties on their heads. Here's some background on this al Qaeda operations chief:

After Sept. 11 attacks on the US, al Kini served as al Qaeda's leader in the restive Afghan province of Zabul. He "later shifted between Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Africa, planning suicide missions, training operatives and raising money," The Washington Post reported, and was appointed as al Qaeda's operational commander in Pakistan in 2007.
He is thought to have been behind more than seven suicide attacks inside Pakistan, including the assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto on her return to Pakistan in October 2007, and the September 2008 bombing at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

I've said it all long with these U.S. predator strikes in Pakistan - that the U.S. has been consistent in that almost 75% of them have been against al Qaeda members and not just Taliban. This originally was done, I think, so that the Pakistani government wouldn't get too ruffled - al Qaeda is a common enemy between Pakistan and the U.S. At the same time, the predator operations in Pakistan have been different than those in Afghanistan - in the Afghan theater, the UAV's are all about taking out any Taliban groups they can find while the operations in Pakistan revolve around seeking only very high value targets in al Qaeda and Taliban-linked groups. I believe part of this strategy is to send a huge message to bin Laden and al Zawahiri that these predators are actually looking for THEM - that it is an intelligence based strategy instead of a kill all strategy.

The stated goal of the U.S. predator operation in Pakistan is to disrupt al Qaeda operations that would lead to Western attacks - now, that is true but at the same time, the goal HAS to also be to totally mess with the heads of al Qaeda leaders in the region. I believe it is working.

Al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan killed in New Year's strike

The US killed al Qaeda's chief of operations in the New Year's Day missile strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan, according to a report.
The Jan. 1 attack in the town of Karikot in South Waziristan killed Osama al Kini and his senior aide Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, intelligence officials told The Washington Post. Two other unnamed operatives were also killed in the airstrike.
Osama al Kini's is an alias for Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, a Kenyan national and a senior al Qaeda commander who was wanted for his role as a planner of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The twin bombings killed 224 civilians and wounded more than 5,000 others. The Rewards for Justice Web site posted a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The US also had offered $5 million for information leading to the capture of Swedan, who also was involved in the 1998 embassy bombings. Al Kini and Swedan, along with senior al Qaeda leaders such as Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Saif al Adel, were indicted in a US federal court on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and attacks on a US facility.

The Jan. 1 airstrike was followed up by a second strike in South Waziristan on the very next day. Four Taliban and al Qaeda operatives are thought to have been killed, but their identities are currently unknown. Both strikes took place in the tribal areas run by Mullah Nazir, who has sheltered senior al Qaeda leaders.
There were 36 recorded cross-border attacks and attempts in Pakistan during 2008, according to numbers compiled by The Long War Journal. Twenty-nine of these attacks took place after Aug. 31. There were only 10 recorded strikes in 2006 and 2007 combined.