Top Al-Qaeda Commander Killed in Pakistan By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 31, 2008
al-Qaida commander Abu Laith al-Libi Abu Laith al-Libi, one of
al-Qaeda's most senior commanders, was killed in Pakistan on Monday, Western officials said today.
The officials declined to comment on whether Libi's death was related to
a reported U.S. missile strike, launched from an unmanned Predator aircraft, that killed at least a dozen people Monday in Pakistan's North Waziristan region.
U.S. officials had offered a bounty of $200,000 for Libi, who used a nom de guerre and his whose true name was not known. He had been identified by U.S. officials as orchestrating the 2007 bombing of the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan, during a visit by Vice President Cheney. Cheney was not injured, but 23 people were killed in the attack.
Libi fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan and was jailed by Saudi Arabian officials for two years for covert activities there. He was also believed to have organized an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi in the mid-1990s.
His death was first reported by al-Ekhlaas, a Web site often used by Islamic militants for announcements. The site carried a banner about his death, according to the Washington-based SITE Institute, which monitors such Web postings. "As the banner was posted on Ekhlaas by a webmaster of the forum, it seems as if the announcement of his death has been confirmed to the forum administrators," a SITE report said.
The SITE report quotes a posting on al-Ekhlaas by the al-Fajr Media Center, a radical Islamic news outlet linked to al-Qaeda. The al-Fajr statement says that Libi was "martyred" in the land of the "Muslim Pakistan" and that his death shows that Islamic leaders are fighting with their troops.
The Western officials confirming his death said that Libi, born in the Libyan city of Tripoli and believed to be in his early 40s, was among the top half dozen al-Qaeda officials and was active
as a battlefield commander in attacks against U.S. and NATO forces in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
He is also believed to have taken part in planning recent attacks against Western-related targets in Pakistan.
Libi also was featured in videos released by the militants. Last spring, al-Sahab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, identified Libi as a bearded man accusing Shiite Muslims of fighting alongside U.S. troops in Iraq, the Associated Press reported.
He also appeared last November in a video with al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Libi was the primary interlocutor between the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and al-Qaeda, which last November announced they had joined forces. But Western officials believe he has been at or near bin Laden's side since at least the late 1980s, when bin Laden and Pakistan-based Afghan mujaheddin fought the Soviets in Afghanistan.
His death is seen as a major success for the U.S. military, which has been increasingly challenged in Afghanistan and the Pakistani border region by both al-Qaeda and resurgent Taliban forces.
Washington Post correspondent Craig Whitlock contributed to this story. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013101799.html?hpid=topnews
