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Officials say top al-Qaeda man killed in strike

Pakistani army soldiers stand beside weapons displayed for the media after they were recovered from militants in Dara Adam Khel in the North West Frontier Province yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

A top al-Qaeda commander who led Osama bin Laden's terror network in Afghanistan was believed killed by a US airstrike on his hideout in a Pakistani tribal area, officials said yesterday.

Abu Laith al-Libi is said to be one of bin Laden's key lieutenants and allegedly masterminded a deadly bombing at a US military base in Afghanistan during a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney last year.

Pakistani security officials said he was one of 13 al-Qaeda militants at a compound in the country's North Waziristan region when it was destroyed by a missile fired by a US Predator drone early on Tuesday.

"Al-Libi was there at the time of the strike. No one survived, we believe he was killed," one intelligence official based in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, said.

Al-Libi was No. 5 on a classified US CIA wanted list, with a US$5 million bounty on his head. The top two spots are occupied by bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Islamist Web sites first announced the death of al-Libi, a Libyan militant who was named in earlier al-Qaeda videos as a senior field commander in Afghanistan and linkman with Taliban insurgents.

"We announce the good news to the Islamic world: Sheikh Abu Laith al-Qassimi al-Libi has fallen a martyr on the soil of Muslim Pakistan," said an announcement on the Al-Fajr Information Center site.

"The sheikh's martyrdom will only strengthen our fire and burn the enemies of our people," it said. "We tell the nation of unfaithfulness and the Crusader army that [the mujahedeen, or warriors] do not die but are killed" in battle.

Al-Libi was at a guesthouse attached to the home of a local Taliban commander, 3km from Mir Ali, the second biggest town in North Waziristan, when the missile hit, Pakistani officials said.

Armed militants had prevented local tribesmen from attending the funerals of those killed, and were still blocking off the thickly forested blast site in a sign that a high-profile target was among the dead, they said.

The Taliban commander who owned the compound, 45-year-old Abdus Sattar, was loyal to one of Pakistan's most wanted men, Islamist tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud, the sources said.

Pakistani and US officials have blamed Mehsud, who is based in neighboring South Waziristan, for orchestrating the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in December.

Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said earlier yesterday that he could neither confirm nor refute reports about al-Libi's death, nor could he say where the missile originated from.

"We cannot negate nor confirm because the moment it happened, they removed the bodies and buried them. So, how would anybody confirm who got killed?" Abbas said.

In Washington, an official who asked not to be identified, said there were "very strong indications" that Libi had been killed but provided no further details.

Asked about the reports, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: "I don't have anything definitive for you on that."

US and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan said that they had no information.
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