Uzbek Muslim Jihadis Charge $40,000 To Carry Out Terror Attacks In Pakistan

I wonder - if a Muslim jihadi from Uzbekistan straps a suicide belt on and blows up a bunch of government officials in Pakistan BUT GOT PAID TO DO IT....does he get the 72 virgins?  I think of these questions, you see.

It's been revealed that the Uzbeks in Pakistan have pretty much become the hired assassins and terrorists of Asia as they are charging $40,000 (US) for committing terror attacks in Pakistan.  I also wonder...if they get paid $40,000 and pull off a terror attack where no women or children are maimed or killed, do the payors get a refund?

The story comes from DAWN.

Punjab banned outfits in contact with Uzbek militants, NA told


ISLAMABAD: Banned militant organisations in Punjab province have contacts with Uzbek militants who charge $40,000 for carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan, a federal minister told the National Assembly on Tuesday.

During Tuesday’s session, Federal Minister Sheikh Waqas Akram told the assembly that the Uzbek militants were in contact with the banned outfits in Punjab, adding that the members of these banned organisations could be seen wearing shirts of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

“These (Uzbek) militants demand a payment of US$40,000 to perform terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil,” he told the assembly.

Akram, who belongs to ruling coalition partner the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), said Interior Minister Rehman Malik should stop “spinning tales” and take definitive action against these banned militant outfits.

The minister’s disclosure comes after a brazen attack on Peshawar’s Bacha Khan Airport and military airbase on Saturday by militants said to be foreigners of Dagestan and Uzbek origins.

Uzbek militants are known to corroborate with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in battles against the Pakistani security forces, which include an attack on Bannu jail conducted to release Taliban inmates and the high-profile prisoner Adnan Rashid.

NA Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi chaired Tuesday’s assembly session held here in Islamabad.

Bills introduced in NA

The Census (Amendment) Bill, 2012 provides to amend the Census Ordinance, 1959. It was moved by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) member Yasmeen Rehman.

The Acid Throwing and Burn Crime Bill, 2012, targeted against the increasing number of acid throwing and acid burn crimes on women and children, was also moved during the session by Dr. Attiya Inayatullah and others.

The chair referred the bills to the concerned standing committees.

A minute of silence was observed during the session for the Swedish woman murdered in Lahore recently.

The assembly session was then adjourned until 11am on Wednesday.

U.S. Drone Strike In North Waziristan Makes Six Uzbeks Wish They Never Had Left the North

Bam!  It's been a bit too long since the Taliban and their butt buddies for Uzbekistan have felt the stink of predator drone hellfires in North Waziristan, Pakistan but six dead Uzbeks today make the wait worth it.

The article is from The Long War Journal.

6 Uzbeks killed in North Waziristan drone strike


Six Uzbek fighters were among those reported killed in the latest US drone strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

The remotely piloted Predators or the more advanced Reapers fired at least six missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the village of Khushhali Turikhel near Mir Ali, according to reports from Pakistan. The Uzbek fighters were "visiting a spring for leisure" when they were attacked, a Pakistani intelligence official told The Express Tribune, which put the number of Uzbeks killed at six. AFP reported that seven "militants" were killed.

No senior al Qaeda or allied jihadist commanders from foreign terrorist groups are reported to have been killed in the strike.

The Uzbek fighters were likely members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or the Islamic Jihad Group, an IMU splinter. Both groups are closely tied to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and are known to operate in the Mir Ali area.

Mir Ali is a terrorist haven

The Mir Ali area is in the sphere of influence of Abu Kasha al Iraqi, an al Qaeda leader who serves as a key link to the Taliban and supports al Qaeda's external operations network. Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar and the Haqqani Network also operate in the Mir Ali area. Moreover, Mir Ali is a known hub for al Qaeda's military and external operations councils.

Since Sept. 8, 2010, several Germans and Britons have been reported killed in Predator strikes in the Mir Ali area. The Europeans were members of the Islamic Jihad Group, an al Qaeda affiliate based in the vicinity of Mir Ali. The IJG members are believed to have been involved in an al Qaeda plot that targeted several major European cities and was modeled after the terror assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008. The plot was orchestrated by Ilyas Kashmiri, the al Qaeda leader who was killed in a US drone strike in June 2011.

Mir Ali also hosts at least three suicide training camps for the the Fedayeen-i-Islam, an alliance between the Pakistani Taliban, the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. In early 2011, a Fedayeen-i-Islam spokesman claimed that more than 1,000 suicide bombers have trained at three camps. One failed suicide bomber corroborated the Fedayeen spokesman's statement, claiming that more than 350 suicide bombers trained at his camp.

Prior to this year, the US has been pounding targets in the Datta Khel, Miramshah, and Mir Ali areas of North Waziristan in an effort to kill members involved in the European plot. Al Qaeda and allied terror groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group, the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and a number of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups host or share camps in the region. These groups are given aid and shelter by Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar and the Haqqani Network, a Taliban subgroup run by Siraj and Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign groups in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on Hafiz Gul Bahadar or the Haqqani Network. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Bahadar has recently banned polio vaccinations in North Waziristan in protest of US drone strikes.

Background on the US strikes in Pakistan

The US has struck targets inside Pakistan's tribal areas four times this month. All four strikes took place in North Waziristan. Today's strike is the second in seven days. The last strike took place in the Shawal Valley, a known stronghold of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Twelve Taliban fighters, including a commander loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahadar, were reported to have been killed.

Today's strike is just the seventh in Pakistan since June 4, when the US killed Abu Yahya al Libi, one of al Qaeda's top leaders, propagandists, and religious figures. Abu Yahya was killed in a strike on a compound in Mir Ali. Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkmen fighters belonging to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were reportedly among the 14 terrorists killed along with Abu Yahya.

Al Qaeda has since released two videos of Abu Yahya; both look as if they were produced sometime after November 2011. The first video, which appears to have been taped long ago, addressed the Syrian revolution. Abu Yahya spoke about US ethics in the second video. Abu Yahya did not address reports of his death in either video. [See Threat Matrix reports, As Sahab releases video of Abu Yahya al Libi; Al Qaeda suggests Abu Yahya al Libi is alive, promises video; and Al Qaeda releases another tape from Abu Yahya al Libi.]

The US has carried out 28 strikes in Pakistan so far this year. Ten of the strikes have taken place since the beginning of June; Eight occurred in North Waziristan and two were in South Waziristan. [For data on the strikes, see LWJ reports, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2012; and Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2012.]

The drone program was scaled back dramatically from the end of March to the beginning of the fourth week in May. Between March 30 and May 22, the US conducted only three drones strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas as US officials attempted to renegotiate the reopening of NATO's supply lines, which were closed from the end of November 2011 until July 3. Pakistan closed the supply lines following the Mohmand incident in November 2011, in which US troops killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistani soldiers were killed after they opened fire on US troops operating across the border in Kunar province, Afghanistan.

In addition to Abu Yahya, two other high-value targets have been killed in the strikes this year. A Jan. 11 strike in Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan, killed Aslam Awan, a deputy to the leader of al Qaeda's external operations network.

And on Feb. 8, the US killed Badr Mansoor, a senior Taliban and al Qaeda leader, in a strike in Miramshah's bazaar. Mansoor ran training camps in the area and sent fighters to battle NATO and Afghan forces across the border, and linked up members of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen with al Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden described Mansoor as one of several commanders of al Qaeda's "companies" operating in the tribal areas. He was later promoted to lead al Qaeda's forces in the tribal areas.

The program has been scaled down from its peak in 2010, when the US conducted 117 strikes, according to data collected by The Long War Journal. In 2011, the US carried out just 64 strikes in Pakistan's border regions.

So far this year, the US has launched three more strikes in Pakistan (28) against al Qaeda and allied terror groups than it has in Yemen (25) against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In 2011, however, the US launched only 10 airstrikes in Yemen, versus 64 in Pakistan.

Just How Do Those German Islamic Terrorists Get To Pakistan?

This really is a fascinating account of how a jihadi wannabe living in Europe's Germany literally travels to the hotbed of all Jihad....Pakistan. The article over at The Long War Journal reviews the account of a German citizen named Yassin Chouka (who was originally born in Morocco) and just how he traveled from his home in Germany to Pakistan where he joined up with the islamic terror group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

From the article:

A German jihadist who fights with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan described his travels from Europe to Pakistan, which included a stop in Yemen and several meetings with Anwar al Awlaki, the wanted American-born terrorist.

The five page statement was written by Yassin Chouka, a German citizen originally from a Morocco who is better known as Abu Ibrahim al Almani. Abu Ibrahim's statement, titled "Our Way to the IMU [Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan]" was produced by Jundallah Studios, a jihadist media outlet that has published propaganda tapes from the IMU in the past. Written in German, the statement was published on Islambruederschaft.com, a German-language website that supports the global jihad.

Abu Ibrahim said that he and his brother "wanted then to go to one of the countries in which the jihad ... is led."

"Whether the trip was to Somalia, Palestine, Chechnya, or Indonesia played no role for us," he continued. "The main thing was that we went there."

He said that his first stop was Yemen, when he joined a "Jama'a," or group known as Al Murabitoon. The group fights along side al Qaeda against the Yemeni government in the western province of Hadramout, a known haven for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

"After a few months and after we knew Yemen better, we joined a Jama'a in Hadramout with the name Al Murabitoon," Abu Ibrahim said. "This Jama'a is built on knowledge, has equipped itself with weapons, and fights side by side with Al Qaeda, with Allah's help to overthrow the unfaithful government in Yemen."

"Our journey lasted exactly one month and was very professionally organized. In the various countries, there were intermediate stations at which they were cared for, we got new travel documents, and, at a particular point in time, a mujahid who was working with the field service accompanied us to the ground of jihad. Shortly before our arrival in Afghanistan, at the last intermediate station, which was about a three-day trip away from the destination, they told us that this route was organized by the IMU."

As we all know by now, we could take this account of this German jihadi and multiply it many times as more and more European jihadis are turning up in Afghanistan and Pakistan - the Germans are there in force and there are many accounts of islamic Brits over there as well. Of course, that doesn't even touch on the likes of all the Middle Eastern and north African jihadis who have swarmed to Pakistan via the al Qaeda network.

German terrorists pass through Yemen, meet Awlaki, before joining IMU in Pakistan


A German jihadist who fights with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan described his travels from Europe to Pakistan, which included a stop in Yemen and several meetings with Anwar al Awlaki, the wanted American-born terrorist.

The five page statement was written by Yassin Chouka, a German citizen originally from a Morocco who is better known as Abu Ibrahim al Almani. Abu Ibrahim's statement, titled "Our Way to the IMU [Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan]" was produced by Jundallah Studios, a jihadist media outlet that has published propaganda tapes from the IMU in the past. Written in German, the statement was published on Islambruederschaft.com, a German-language website that supports the global jihad.

Abu Ibrahim and his brother, Mounir Chouka, who goes by the name Abu Adam, have been featured in IMU propaganda in the past. In January, Abu Adam announced the death of senior IMU and al Qaeda leader Bekkay Harrach. Abu Adam also provided voice overs in a tape released in January that praised slain IMU terrorists from across the globe.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is an al Qaeda-affiliated group whose leadership cadre is based primarily in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The terror group operates primarily along the Afghan-Pakistani border and in northern Afghanistan. According to one estimate, more than 3,000 Uzbeks, Central Asian, and other foreign fighters belonging to the IMU are sheltering in North Waziristan.

The IMU's former leader, Tahir Yuldashev, was killed in a US Predator airstrike in South Waziristan in September 2009. Yuldashev sat on al Qaeda's top council, the Shura Majlis. He has been replaced by Abu Usman Adil.

From Germany to Yemen

Abu Ibrahim said he documented the brother's travels to answer questions posed about them on Al Furqon, a popular jihadist forum.

"Increasingly, we get asked questions on the website www.furqon.com that ... reach us personally," Abu Ibrahim said. "As I have said before, we planned to answer many of these questions in the new year in order to inform the general population of the brothers and sisters. One of the frequently asked questions is about how it happened that we (especially my brother Abu Adam and I) decided to fight with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan."

Abu Ibrahim said that he and his brother "wanted then to go to one of the countries in which the jihad ... is led."

"Whether the trip was to Somalia, Palestine, Chechnya, or Indonesia played no role for us," he continued. "The main thing was that we went there."

He said that his first stop was Yemen, when he joined a "Jama'a," or group known as Al Murabitoon. The group fights along side al Qaeda against the Yemeni government in the western province of Hadramout, a known haven for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

"After a few months and after we knew Yemen better, we joined a Jama'a in Hadramout with the name Al Murabitoon," Abu Ibrahim said. "This Jama'a is built on knowledge, has equipped itself with weapons, and fights side by side with Al Qaeda, with Allah's help to overthrow the unfaithful government in Yemen."

Abu Ibrahim claimed that Al Murabitoon carried out attacks against the US Embassy and the Presidential Palace Sana'a, and military bases and police stations. "The jihad in Yemen began, and my brother and I were unexpectedly right in the middle instead of nearby," he said.

Meeting Anwar al Awlaki

While in Yemen, Abu Ibrahim claimed he met none other than Anwar al Awlaki, the American born cleric who is at the top of the US government's hit list for inspiring terror attacks on the homeland.

"During an indescribable adventure in Yemen, we had the honor of meeting one of the true scholars of our time, the Sheikh and the missionary Imam Anwar al Awlaki," Abu Ibrahim said. "We could benefit much from him and spent precious hours with him."

Abu Ibrahim said that Awlaki "was active in honey sales, [and] had joined forces with some virtuous, big businessmen in order to finance the jihad in Somalia and to send to the brothers in Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan."

From Yemen to Pakistan, and the IMU

After spending a year in Yemen, Awlaki advised Abu Ibrahim and Abu Adam to move to Afghanistan as Yemen was becoming unsafe for foreigners. Abu Ibrahim said the move to Afghan-Pakistan border area took a month and described it as "very professionally organized."

"Our journey lasted exactly one month and was very professionally organized. In the various countries, there were intermediate stations at which they were cared for, we got new travel documents, and, at a particular point in time, a mujahid who was working with the field service accompanied us to the ground of jihad. Shortly before our arrival in Afghanistan, at the last intermediate station, which was about a three-day trip away from the destination, they told us that this route was organized by the IMU."

The IMU "made the final preparations for us, gave us a computer, and played us some films about the Movement." They were shown videos made by Tahir Yuldashev, who "started the jihad in Pakistan." And when asked to choose which group to fight with, Abu Ibrahim said they chose the IMU.

A well-worn path to jihad

Abu Ibrahim's description of his journey to the Afghan-Pakistan region matches numerous other accounts of terrorists traveling to hot zones to wage jihad. Al Qaeda and its affiliates maintain safe houses and transit points throughout the Middle East and Central and South Asia. The alphabet soup of Pakistani jihadist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, and their charitable fronts, have elaborate networks devoted to moving foreign fighters into Afghanistan.

Often, host nations aid in the facilitation of the movement of foreign terrorists, particularly into Afghanistan. For instance, Iran, via the Ansar Corps, a sub-command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, facilitates the movement of al Qaeda fighters into Afghanistan. Elements of Pakistan's military and intelligence services also support Pakistani jihadist groups that run networks into Afghanistan. These same groups are often used to attack Indians in Kashmir.

40 Tajikistan Soldiers Killed In Ambush By Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Jihadis

There are ambushes and then there are ambushes. When you have a convoy of 75 Tajikistani soldiers that get hit by Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan jihadis and the end result is 40 dead Tajik troops and zero Uzbeks killed, THAT is an ambush.

The ambush took place inside of Tajikistan as the troops were searching for escaped Uzbek prisoners and the result was a horrifying massacre.

From the article at The Long War Journal:

Forty Tajik soldiers were killed today in an ambush by suspected Islamist fighters allied with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

The soldiers were part of a 75-man convoy moving through the Rasht Valley in Tajikistan, an area known as a haven for Islamists fighters. Five Tajik officers are reported to have been among the 40 soldiers killed. No enemy fighters were reported killed.

The soldiers were ambushed while searching for members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who escaped from a prison in Dushanbe on Aug. 25. One guard was killed during the jailbreak, and four more guards were killed at a nearby detention facility.

The Islamist fighters are believed to have been led by a commander known as Mullo Abdullo (or Mullah Abdullah). Abdullo is said to be a commander in the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and has been based out of Afghanistan in the past. Abdullo led Islamist forces during the Tajik civil war, and in the aftermath of the war in the late 1990s, he fled the country after refusing to reconcile with the government. He sheltered in Afghanistan with the Taliban, along with an estimated 100 followers.

You see from the article the link between these Uzbeks and the Taliban - we have long seen the Uzbeks jihadis in the Taliban mix in Afghanistan - it's a bit like the jihadis that joined al Qaeda in Iraq from places like Morocco, Sudan and Algeria.

The Tajiks have been rocked recently by blatant suicide bombings and other raids so I'm sure the prison escape had them committed to finding the escapees...I'm sure there is a lot of blood on their hands but at the same time, one has to wonder what this ambush will do to the morale of the Tajik army.

40 Tajik soldiers killed in Islamist ambush


Forty Tajik soldiers were killed today in an ambush by suspected Islamist fighters allied with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

The soldiers were part of a 75-man convoy moving through the Rasht Valley in Tajikistan, an area known as a haven for Islamists fighters. Five Tajik officers are reported to have been among the 40 soldiers killed. No enemy fighters were reported killed.

The soldiers were ambushed while searching for members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who escaped from a prison in Dushanbe on Aug. 25. One guard was killed during the jailbreak, and four more guards were killed at a nearby detention facility.

The Islamist fighters are believed to have been led by a commander known as Mullo Abdullo (or Mullah Abdullah). Abdullo is said to be a commander in the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and has been based out of Afghanistan in the past. Abdullo led Islamist forces during the Tajik civil war, and in the aftermath of the war in the late 1990s, he fled the country after refusing to reconcile with the government. He sheltered in Afghanistan with the Taliban, along with an estimated 100 followers.

Abdullo is reported to have returned to Tajikistan in May 2009. In July 2009, he led 300 fighters in an attack on a police station near the eastern town of Tavil-Dara in Tajikistan. He is now said to lead more than 300 fighters and is based in the Rasht Valley, where today's ambush occurred.

Today's ambush in Tajikistan is the latest attack by Islamist fighters in the country this year. In addition to the Aug. jailbreak in Dushanbe, on Sept. 3 a suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters in Khujand, the second largest city in Tajikistan. Two policemen were killed and 30 more were wounded.

Within a week of the Khujand attack, Tajik border guards killed 20 Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan fighters as they attempted to cross the border from Afghanistan. The Taliban and IMU fighters are thought to have been fleeing an ISAF and Afghan operation in Kunduz.

Tajikistan has seen an uptick in attacks from Islamist terror groups since the summer of 2009. In late spring of that year, NATO opened a supply line from Tajikistan into northern Afghanistan after the Taliban and allied groups heavily targeted the main NATO route from Pakistan.

In recent weeks, the US has been hunting Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan commanders in the northern Afghan provinces of Kunduz, Baghlan, and Takhar, where the terror group has integrated its operations with the Taliban. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan commanders have taken senior roles in the Taliban's commander structure. On Sept. 2, the US killed an IMU leader who also served as Takhar's deputy shadow governor.

Pakistani Military Has Surrounded Uzbek Base In South Waziristan, Let The Massacre Begin

All I can say is hopefully, by morning we will see a layer of Uzbek blood and guts coating the soil of Kaniguram, South Waziristan, Pakistan.

From DAWN:

Troops surround ‘Uzbek base’ in S. Waziristan

ISLAMABAD: Security forces have surrounded Kaniguram, an important base of Uzbek militants in South Waziristan, from three directions and preparing to storm the town.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and Armed Forces Spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told newsmen on Wednesday that important fronts around the town had been secured.
Gen Abbas said security forces had also achieved substantial successes on two other fronts. He said good progress had been made on the Jandola-Saroragha axis and important heights had been secured in Nawazkot area on the Razmak-Makeen axis.
On the Jandola-Sararogha front, he said, troops were making good progress and securing heights along the main Kotkai-Sararogha road, overlooking the town of Sararogha. Troops secured the important the Nullah road junction, 2km north of Ganrakas and the important point 1233 west of the Kotkai-Sararogha road. Besides, Inzar Kalay has been cleared.
Three training complexes have been destroyed in Murghabund and 25 centres and nine caves Kotkai.
On the Shakai-Kaniguram axis, the military spokesman said, the important front of Karwan Manza about 2km east of Kaniguram had been secured. It dominates Kaniguram from the east and overlooks the town of Karama towards southeast on the Kaniguram-Kotkai road.
Karama is a stronghold and training centre of foreign terrorists.
On the Razmak-Makeen axis, security forces are consolidating their positions at Shaga, point 6813 Tip-Ghar Top, Lagar Narai and Sharakai Sar and carrying out a search operation in Nawazkot area. During clearance operations, 15 bunkers and Sanghars have been destroyed, along with 37 rockets.
Gen Abbas said 25 militants were killed in South Waziristan and huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized on Tuesday and Wednesday. He said five soldiers suffered injuries.
He rejected a perception that the Taliban had made tactical withdrawal from Kotkai in order to launch another assault and said that the Taliban leadership was on the run.
‘Let us look at the present, the future will take care of itself,’ he remarked.
Answering a question, he said the exact whereabouts of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud were not known, but there were indications that Qari Hussain and Waliur Rahman were still in the area. About TTP Swat chief Fazlullah, he said the noose around him was being tightened.
Responding to another question, he said the US-led Nato forces had readjusted some of their security posts near the border with Pakistan. However, he said Pakistan was still awaiting details it had sought about the relocation of the posts.
He said the operation enjoyed public support as well as backing of tribes. Militants were fleeing to North Waziristan. He appealed to the people of the agency to brace themselves up to deal with the situation.
Asked if the army still had reservations over the controversial Kerry-Lugar bill, he said the army had expressed its opinion in a press release issued after the meeting of corps commanders. He pointed out that the release had stressed that it was for parliament to decide the fate of the bill.
Gen Abbas said there were reports that militants were preparing 12 to 13 years old children for suicide attacks.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira condemned the Peshawar blast said it was a clear indication that militants who were facing defeat were targeting innocent civilians out of frustration. ‘What sort of jihad is this? What religion are they preaching?’
He said militants were getting financial and material support through the Afghan route. He said they were also getting their share from the Afghan drug money.

Did We Kill The Top Leader Of Al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan In UAV Missile Strike?

If this turns out to be the case, it is most definitely a HUGE fish killed in the sea of terrorism! Reports are out there that the U.S. predator airstrike in South Waziristan last week not only killed Taliban and Uzbek fighters but may just have turned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader, Tahir Yuldashev, into maggot feed. From the report at The Long War Journal:

Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate that the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was killed during a US airstrike in South Waziristan in late August.
Tahir Yuldashev, emir of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, is said to have been killed in a strike by an unmanned US aircraft in the town of Kanigoram on Aug. 27, 2009. The strike took place in a known stronghold of the Taliban forces under the command of Mullah Nazir.
Eight Taliban fighters and Uzbek fighters were reported killed in the attack, but no senior leader was initially reported killed.
The first report of Yuldashev's death emerged on Sept. 28, when a man called Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek service for Radio Liberty, identified himself as a bodyguard for Yuldashev, and said the leader had died from wounds one day after the strike. According to the caller, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was trying to hide Yuldashev's death.

Now, getting the correct information out of Pakistan is usually pretty tough but one has to wonder why this would even have been brought up if there wasn't some substance to it. With all of the notorious leaders of al Qaeda and the Taliban in this region, why would the name of the Uzbek leader be thrown out there. And, if I'm not mistaken, this airstrike constituted one of the largest kills of Uzbek fighters...one could surmise from that, that this was some sort of a bodyguard assembly for someone important in the Uzbek movement.

We'll hope this is true and that the list of al Qaeda and Taliban leaders snuffed out in their NW Pakistan hideouts has continued to grow. I envision a day soon when these leaders holed up in NW Pakistan are going to have to finally pull the trigger and start their movement north back into Afghanistan.

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader thought killed in August strike in South Waziristan


Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate that the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was killed during a US airstrike in South Waziristan in late August.
Tahir Yuldashev, emir of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, is said to have been killed in a strike by an unmanned US aircraft in the town of Kanigoram on Aug. 27, 2009. The strike took place in a known stronghold of the Taliban forces under the command of Mullah Nazir.
Eight Taliban fighters and Uzbek fighters were reported killed in the attack, but no senior leader was initially reported killed.
The first report of Yuldashev's death emerged on Sept. 28, when a man called Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek service for Radio Liberty, identified himself as a bodyguard for Yuldashev, and said the leader had died from wounds one day after the strike. According to the caller, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was trying to hide Yuldashev's death.
The caller also claimed that Yuldashev had been replaced by "an ethnic Tatar by name of Abdurakhman." An Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader known as Zubair ibn Abdurakhman is said to serve as the group’s spokesman as well as a leader of a faction of the group.
Anonymous Pakistani officials are now saying that Yuldashev did indeed die in the Aug. 27 strike. "The man has kicked the bucket," a senior Pakistani government official told Dawn. "He is dead beyond doubt," another Pakistani official said.
US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not confirm that Yuldashev was killed. "We are aware of the reports and investigating, but do not have evidence he was killed at this time," one senior military intelligence official said.
Pakistani intelligence has claimed Yuldashev has been killed in the past. Most recently, Yuldashev and 'pro-government' Taliban leader Mullah Nazir were reported killed in a strike on Oct. 31, 2008. Both later resurfaced.
Yuldashev's death, if confirmed, would mean the US has killed five senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders since the Aug. 5 strike that killed Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Also thought killed are: Ilyas Kashmiri, the operations commander of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami and the operations chief of Brigade 313; Najmuddin Jalolov, the leader of the Islamic Jihad Group, a breakaway faction of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and Mustafa al Jaziri, a senior military commander for al Qaeda who sits on al Qaeda's military shura.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Pakistan and Afghanistan
Yuldashev took command of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan after Juma Namangani was killed by anti-Taliban fighters from the Northern Alliance during the US invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. Namangani and Yuldashev had co-founded the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in 1998.
Yuldashev is said to have been one of the senior commanders battling US forces during Operation Anaconda in the Shahi-Kot Valley in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia in March 2002.
The IMU is closely allied with al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. Yuldashev's fighters shelter in North and South Waziristan; there are an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 IMU fighters based in the region.
The IMU is strong in northern Afghanistan, where, over the past two years, the insurgency has been revitalized. The Taliban and the IMU have carried out attacks against NATO's new supply corridor from Tajikistan through the northern provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan. The Taliban, with the help of the IMU, control several districts in Kunduz and Baghlan. As many as 80 al Qaeda-linked militants, including Uzbeks and Chechens, are operating in areas southwest of Kunduz City.
The IMU has also extended its violent reach into Afghanistan's neighboring countries to the north. Under the command of Mullah Abdullah, a force of 300 IMU and Taliban fighters attacked a police station in the town of Tavil-Dara in Tajikistan on July 9. Abdullah is thought to have crossed from Kunduz into Tajikistan several weeks before the attack. Eleven days later, the IMU attacked a remote military checkpoint in Tajikistan near the Afghan border. Five IMU fighters were killed during the assault.

Paydirt! Two Hellfires From A Predator Kill 25+ Taliban Inside Of Pakistan

Hooooorayyyyy! HUGE bloody score today in Pakistan as a U.S. predator launched two hellfire missiles into a Taliban compound in the Ladha region of the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan inside of Pakistan. Talk about sweet, huh? What I wouldn't give to have a photo up of the aftermath of this one! Anyway, here's the details from, of course, The Long War Journal:

The US launched an airstrike inside of Pakistan's tribal areas early Saturday morning, ending a 24-day lull in attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda networks inside Pakistan.
An unmanned US Predator strike aircraft fired two missiles into a compound of a Taliban commander based in the town of Malik Khel in the Ladha region of the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. Twenty-five extremists, most of them from Uzbekistan, were killed in the strike, a senior Taliban leader told Reuters.
"Our people have informed us that at least 25 people were killed," the Taliban official said."It could be more. Most of them are Uzbek mujahideen." The al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, commanded by Tahir Yuldashev, operates in South Waziristan.

Now, you will notice here the reference to the fact that these were mostly Uzbek muj. Let's take a little closer look at this whole Uzbekistan connection with the Taliban. Here's a bit of an overview on these Uzbek jihadis from Wiki:

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was a militant Islamist group formed in 1998 by former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani, and the Islamic ideologue Tohir Yuldashev - both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley. Its objective was to overthrow President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, and to create an Islamic state under Sharia.
Operating out of bases in Tajikistan and Taliban-controlled areas of northern Afghanistan, the IMU launched a series of audacious raids into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in 1999 and 2000.

Basically, what happened in 2007 then was that the Taliban invited over 1000 Uzbeks into Helmand province in Afghanistan and since then, more and more have entered the fray and as is the case with many of the Taliban over time, they migrated into NW Pakistan.

P.S. You'll see mention below of the flap caused by Senator Dianne "I'veGotASize9InMyMouth" Feinstein when she opened her huge Leftist trap about where these UAV attacks are coming from - good to see that these attacks haven't missed a beat even with the daily sabotage done by the U.S. Democrats.

Ain't it nice to know that these U.S. predators aren't profiling just Arab and Afghan and Paki Taliban? These are equal opportunity hellfires sending ANYONE of these chumps off on their little virgin hunt in Hell.

US Predator strike in South Waziristan kills 25

The US launched an airstrike inside of Pakistan's tribal areas early Saturday morning, ending a 24-day lull in attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda networks inside Pakistan.
An unmanned US Predator strike aircraft fired two missiles into a compound of a Taliban commander based in the town of Malik Khel in the Ladha region of the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. Twenty-five extremists, most of them from Uzbekistan, were killed in the strike, a senior Taliban leader told Reuters.
"Our people have informed us that at least 25 people were killed," the Taliban official said."It could be more. Most of them are Uzbek mujahideen." The al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, commanded by Tahir Yuldashev, operates in South Waziristan.
Ladha is in the eastern half of South Waziristan in a region controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. There were at least two other strikes in Baitullah's territory in South Waziristan during 2007, and another strike this year.
In mid-June 2007, a strike hit a Taliban safe house in Baitullah's hometown of Makeen. In mid-October 2007 , a Predator strike took place in the village of Saam, also in the Ladha region. And on Jan. 2, 2008, another strike took place in Madin in the Lahda region.
Today's strike is the fifth attack this year and the first since Jan. 23, when US Predators conducted attacks in North and South Waziristan. The Jan. 23 attacks took place just two days after President Barack Obama took office.
The airstrike in South Waziristan is also the first since Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, disclosed that the CIA was operating a covert air base that is used to conduct the attacks inside of Pakistan. "As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," Feinstein said after brushing off criticism and protests over the attacks.
Senator Feinstein's spokesman later claimed she was referring to a February 2008 report in the Washington Post. In September 2006, the Asia Times reported the US was operating a secret base in Tarbella, a region 12 miles outside of Islamabad.
Pakistan's defense minister rejected Feinstein's claim on Feb. 13. “We do have the facilities from where they can fly, but they are not being flown from Pakistani territory," Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said. "They are being flown from Afghanistan... I do not know on what she based all this.”