View Full Version : Cia Air Strike Against Zawahiri
Vancouver
01-13-2006, 10:49 PM
Sources: Airstrike may have killed bin Laden's No. 2
From David Ensor
CNN
Friday, January 13, 2006; Posted: 9:53 p.m. EST (02:53 GMT)
Intelligence suggests that Ayman al-Zawahiri, seen in this September video, may have been killed.
Image: [omitted]
(CNN) -- A CIA airstrike on a building in Pakistan may have killed Osama bin Laden's most-trusted aide, sources said.
The building where Ayman al-Zawahiri was thought to be is in Damadola, a small village near the Afghan border.
There has been no confirmation that al-Zawahiri, 54, was killed in the attack Friday. However, sources say there was intelligence suggesting he was in the building at the time of the strike. (Watch how al-Zawahiri was targeted -- 5:39)
Pakistani officials were at the scene of the strike, trying to determine if al-Zawahiri was killed.
Pakistan's information minister could not confirm al-Zawahiri was the target of a CIA strike, and both the Pentagon and White House declined to comment Friday night.
A doctor in the area told The Associated Press that at least 17 people were killed in the attack, but other witnesses at the scene said the death toll was higher.
Just last week, the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape in which the al Qaeda operative called on President Bush to concede defeat in Iraq.
It was al-Zawahiri's fifth message released over the past year, including ones claiming responsibility for the July attacks on the transit system in London, England.
The U.S. government is offering up to $25 million for information leading to the capture of al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who is considered to be the intellectual and ideological driving force behind al Qaeda.
He has been associated with bin Laden since at least 1987, when they met in Pakistan. He also is believed to be bin Laden's personal physician.
In 1998, al-Zawahiri merged his own Islamic militant group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, into bin Laden's organization.
Three months after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, U.S. forces attacked al-Zawahiri's residence in Afghanistan, killing his wife and children.
In March 2004, Pakistani troops launched an assault in Waziristan province, where intelligence indicated al-Zawahiri was hiding, but he was not captured.
Vancouver
01-13-2006, 11:16 PM
A Pakistani gov't team has reached the site.
Islamabad says it was not an American action.
From BBC:
Pakistan raid 'targets al-Qaeda'
Al-Zawahiri has eluded US capture since 2001 despite a $25m bounty
A deputy leader of al-Qaeda may have been targeted in an airstrike by US forces on a village in eastern Pakistan, according to reports.
However, it remained unclear whether Ayman al-Zawahiri died in the raid.
Five of a reported 18 people killed were suspected senior al-Qaeda members, the US television network ABC quoted Pakistani military sources as saying.
===
(edit) "U.S. and Pakistani officials told NBC news that U.S. Predator drones fired as many as 10 missiles." But officially there is no comment yet from the Pentagon, which sounds promising :)
Forensic tests to reveal fate of Al Qaeda No. 2 (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1504096)
http://members.aol.com/csidna/csi-bomb.jpg
I hope they got the ugly little serial killer.
.
Tonight on Nightline, they said 5 of the bodies were badly burned & that tissue samples had been sent to DC for possible DNA testing. 48 to 72 hours.
TrustButVerify
01-14-2006, 12:50 AM
where exactly did they get a same of his DNA to compare it to?
where exactly did they get a same of his DNA to compare it to?
I wondered the same. Relatives perhaps?
rectar
01-14-2006, 01:00 AM
I wondered the same. Relatives perhaps?..fromme clones dummies or dirrty cracks...
Vancouver
01-14-2006, 01:03 AM
It was a heavy strike. Craters 3 meters deep according to a Western press source. (If it were a Pakistani source, I would divide that number by 2.) Some say 8 explosions, some more. Probably upwards of 20 dead. Three separate target buildings. David Ensor of CNN seems pretty confident that it was a "CIA ordered" strike, as he put it.
It was a heavy strike. Craters 3 meters deep according to a Western press source. (If it were a Pakistani source, I would divide that number by 2.) Some say 8 explosions, some more. Probably upwards of 20 dead. Three separate target buildings. David Ensor of CNN seems pretty confident that it was a "CIA ordered" strike, as he put it.
They showed some video on Nightline, also. Lots of very big holes everywhere.
Vancouver
01-14-2006, 03:33 AM
Both NBC and CNN state flatly that their sources have told them that Ayman az-Zawahiri was the target. But consider this: AP says that they were hearing that there was a very good chance that Zawahiri was present or was about to arrive. About to arrive at 03:15? And how would they know?
It sounds as if several Qaeda people were there for a powwow. But I didn't see any cars in the snippets of video. And according to my calculations, Zawahiri had been regularly reading newspapers and probably also using the internet. Satellite dish?
As for how Zawahiri was found, it looks to me as if one or two of the London bombers (specifically Khan) personally met Zawahiri. Remember Zawahiri saying that the Queen was a bigtime enemy of Islam? Silly statement, and I figure that he had been hearing accounts of life in England from the London bombers who, we know, went to Pakistan shortly before their crime. Their movements and connections might well have put the CIA or MI6 on the right scent. But there are other possibilities, about which I should not blab.
Casey
01-14-2006, 09:23 AM
Zawahri not present during attack: Pakistan official
Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:18 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, was not in a village near the Afghan border that was hit by a U.S. airstrike early on Friday morning, a senior Pakistani government official said on Saturday.
"Al-Zawahri was not there at the time of the attack," the official told Reuters, after U.S. intelligence sources in Washington had earlier said the airstrike that killed at least 18 people in northern Pakistan had targeted Osama bin Laden's deputy.
Pakistan condemned on Saturday an airstrike on a village near the Afghan border that U.S. intelligence sources say was aimed at killing al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri.
The government regretted the loss of civilian lives, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Tribesmen in Damadola village in the Bajaur tribal agency said 18 of their kinfolk were killed by the airstrike early on Friday morning, while a senior Pakistani government official said Zawahri was not in the village at the time.
"We want to assure the people we will not allow such an incident to reoccur," Ahmed said, reading a statement which termed the attack as "highly condemnable".
Source (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=)
Casey
01-14-2006, 09:24 AM
Qaeda No.2 away during attack: Pakistan official
Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:11 AM ET
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda's second-in-command, U.S. sources said, but Ayman al-Zawahri was away at the time, according to a senior Pakistani official on Saturday.
The strike on Friday killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and three houses were destroyed in a village near the Afghan border, residents said.
Pakistan condemned the airstrike and would summon the U.S. ambassador to protest the attack, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. He had no information about Zawahri.
CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack on Damadola village, across the border from Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. sources said.
A high-ranking Pakistani official said Zawahri, deputy to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was not in the village. The United States has offered $25 million for either Zawahri or bin Laden.
"Al-Zawahri was not there at the time," the Pakistani official told Reuters.
Pakistani intelligence sources said Zawahri was believed to have made visits to the Bajaur area, though on Friday he was not in Damadola, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Islamabad.
President Pervez Musharraf, addressing officials in the town of Swabi to the north of Islamabad, said only: "There was an incident in Bajaur. We are looking into it, who did it -- people from outside have come."
A military spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Florida said there had been no official report of an attack in Pakistan.
Anger has been building in Pakistan over repeated U.S. intrusions, and on Saturday hundreds of protesters chanted anti-American slogans at Inayat Killi village, near Damadola.
LOCAL PEOPLE
People from Damadola said no foreigners, only local people, were present and were killed in Friday's attack.
"I know all the 18 people killed. There was neither al Zawahri nor any other Arab among them. Rather they were all poor people of the area," Haroon Rashid, the area's National Assembly representative, was quoted as saying by the Afghan Islamic Press, a news agency based in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar.
Rashid, a member of the hardline Islamic Jamaat-i-Islami party, said the bombing site was two km (a mile) from his home and he knew all people of the area.
The incident came days after Pakistan, an important ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, lodged a strong protest with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, saying cross-border firing in the nearby Waziristan area last weekend killed eight people.
On the run since U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities, bin Laden and Zawahri are believed to have been hiding in the border areas under the protection of Pashtun tribes.
U.S. sources in Washington said the remains of the dead would be examined to determine whether Zawahri was killed.
Pakistani intelligence sources said they had no knowledge of any bodies other than those belonging to villagers.
But residents said some people had crossed from Afghanistan to celebrate this week's Eid al-Adha festival, and one said he had seen at least two bodies he believed belonged to outsiders.
Eight women and five children were among those killed.
At CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, agents had been holding out hopes that Zawahri had been eliminated, according to a former official, in touch with old colleagues.
Analysts say several high profile arrests in Pakistan and elsewhere mean bin Laden's and Zawahri's network has lost much of its capability to launch attacks.
But while they have been partly overshadowed by al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, they are still regarded with awe among Islamist militants and their sympathizers.
In a video aired last Friday, Zawahri hailed "Islam's victory in Iraq" and said the United States was being defeated there.
(Additional reporting by Joanne Morrison in Washington and Zeeshan Haider in Swabi)
Source (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-01-14T141100Z_01_N13223063_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-PAKISTAN-ZAWAHRI.xml&archived=False)
Bill Roggio suggests proof may be difficult. (http://inbrief.threatswatch.org/2006/01/alqaeda-attacked-zawahiri-dead/)
DNA testing will be required for positive identification, but reaching the site of the attack may prove difficult. Adnkronos reports “People are very angry. They are not allowing access” to the crash site. The town sits right on the border with Afghanistan in a remote location where Pakistani troops are not believed to be operating. The survivors may bury or destroy the remains before an investigative team arrives, and which may be required to fight their way to the scene of the attack.
Stay tuned...
Flash presentation of al-Qaeda High Value Targets captured and killed in Pakistan. (http://multimedia.threatswatch.org/2006/01/high-value-targets/)
Vancouver
01-14-2006, 06:03 PM
From the New York Times:
"Local officials in the Bajaur district, where the airstrike happened, said 18 civilians had been killed in the attack, including six children. But the senior Pakistani official who spoke of Mr. Zawahiri suggested that the death toll was higher, and he said that at least 11 militants had been killed in the attack. Seven of the dead were Arab fighters, and another four were Pakistani militants from Punjab Province, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the news media."
It does look as if the CIA was waiting for Zawahiri to show up. I suppose "Arab fighters" could include include Egyptians, such as Saif al-Adel, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, etc. But it wouldn't be the first time that somebody in the Pakistani regime exaggerated the rank of the enemies who got eliminated.
(edit) Surely the locals must know something about who was coming and going from those three houses.
FBI likely to test DNA of Pakistan victims
Posted 1/14/2006 3:29 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI anticipates performing DNA tests on the victims of a purported CIA airstrike in Pakistan that apparently targeted al-Qaeda's second-in-command, a law enforcement official said Saturday.
At least 17 people were killed in the airstrike on Damadola, near the Afghan border. Senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that the CIA acted on erroneous information in launching the attack early Friday, and that Ayman al-Zawahri was not among the dead.
In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials did not immediately provide additional details about the attack.
DNA tests to determine the victims' identities are expected to be conducted in the United States, according to the law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal request for such testing had not been made public.
Up to 11 extremists were believed to be among the dead, according to unidentified Pakistani officials quoted in news reports. However, survivors of the attack in Damadola denied that militants were there.
A Pakistani intelligence officer told the AP that some bodies were taken away for DNA tests.
The U.S. government has issued a $25 million bounty for al-Zawahri, considered by Western authorities to be a close associate to Osama bin Laden. Like bin Laden, al-Zawahri is believed to have been hiding along the rugged Pakistan-Afghan frontier since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., has extensive DNA research capabilities and provides that expertise to the Defense Department and other government agencies.
A counterterrorism official said that if al-Zawahri were killed, which is not yet known, it would be a devastating blow to al-Qaeda. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
The official said the group's leaders have shown themselves to be fairly resilient when other al-Qaeda lieutenants were killed or captured, but that al-Zawahri's death would be much tougher to endure.
Al-Zawahri has been the public face of al-Qaeda. Last year, bin Laden took a lower profile and delegated much authority to al-Zawahri to conduct al-Qaeda's operations.
Bin Laden also didn't make a single public statement in 2005. Instead, his top deputy appeared in video and audio recordings.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-14-airstrike-dna-tests_x.htm
Many conflicting reports. Who to believe? Time will tell.
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Pakistan’s Federation Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao in Exclusive interview to DEBKAfile’s Special Correspondent in Pakistan: Neither Al-Qaeda`s number two, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, nor Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar was in Damadola village at the time of Friday’s US air attack which killed 18 villagers
January 14, 2006, 10:32 AM (GMT+02:00)
The minister also denied the removal of five dead bodies of al Qaeda leaders.
"The US planes apparently acted on wrong information while trying to target some top al-Qaeda leaders, thereby killing Pakistani civilians", said the interior minister who made his report after Pakistani security and intelligence agencies had inspected the site of the air strike by two CIA-controlled Predator surveillance aircraft firing Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. This method has been used in the past to kill high-value terrorists.
According to DEBKAfile’s sources, Minister Sherpao’s remark indicates that al Qaeda or Taliban had managed to plant a false lead with US intelligence by means of informers. This decoy operation had two objectives:
1. To confuse the commanders of the American forces hunting for bin Laden and Mullah Omar and expose their failure to penetrate al Qaeda’s top ranks.
2. To expose US pursuit tactics and uncover any American collaborators in their midst. The speed with which the news of the air raid appeared on US TV channels Friday night was a mark of the CIA’s certainty that this time it had hit one of its primary marks in the war on terror, Zawahiri.
DEBKAfile’s Special Correspondent in Pakistan reported earlier:
The target was a cluster of three houses owned by a jeweler named Abdul Ghafoor, whose relatives were among the victims.
The Pakistani authorities pointed out that in December, the Americans claimed to have killed Abu Hamza Rabia, a leading al-Qaeda operative, in an air strike in the Pakistani tribal area. However, the body was not produced, leaving the American claim in doubt.
DEBKAfile adds: Bajaur is one of the seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA running down the border with Afghanistan. These mountain areas, home to six million inhabitants, have long been used as sanctuaries and rear bases by Al Qaeda and Taliban.
Zawahiri in his latest videotape Friday, Jan. 6, called on the United States to admit its defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan and threatened the Americans with the same defeat in Palestine.
http://www.debka.com
Don't shoot the messenger.
----------------------------
CONFIRMED: Al-Qaeda’s Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahri Alive And Well
Jan 14, 2006
JUS News Desk
We interrupt this weekend edition to bring you the latest news on Thursday US missile strike in Pakistan targeting Al-Qaeda’s second in command Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahri. JUS has received confirmation that the Dr. Al-Zawahri is alive and well and was not hit in the attack as Arab press has been circulating.
The US strike on Friday killed at least two dozens people, including women and children, and three houses were destroyed in a village near the Afghan border, according to local witnesses. CIA-operated unmanned drones were said to have been used in the attack on Damadola village, across the border from Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan.
Pakistan condemned the airstrike and regretted the loss of civilian lives, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said, adding "we will not allow such an incident to reoccur" however words are cheap for the US ally.
However, this is a reminder to Muslims that we really should not put too much emphasis on individuals, Muslim leaders who were far superior to Zawahri have been killed but Islam remains alive and will continue to remain alive regardless of how many leaders fall in the battle. (JUS)
http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=105806&list=/home.php
Vancouver
01-17-2006, 02:44 AM
"
From David Ensor
CNN
Monday, January 16, 2006; Posted: 11:35 p.m. EST (04:35 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. intelligence officials said Monday they were trying to determine whether Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant was at a dinner in a remote Pakistani village and whether he was one of the people killed by a CIA airstrike.
The U.S. officials said they had solid intelligence that a number of senior al Qaeda personnel were killed in Friday's attack, which targeted houses in Damadola, Pakistan.
"
It doesn't say they were in the vicinity. It says they were killed. Maybe the dead include some of Zawahiri's fellow Egyptians, such as Abu Maryam.
Assuming the good doctor is still alive, it must at least cross his mind that his life has resulted in early death for a lot of his friends.
Vancouver
01-17-2006, 04:48 AM
Another bit from CNN:
The remains of about 12 bodies, including as many as eight foreigners, were quickly retrieved by a group of men after the airstrike and buried elsewhere, sources said.
U.S. officials declined to comment on that report.There was an A.P. reporter on the scene only 12 hours after the raid. He saw relatives digging for bodies in the débris, at the same time as some graves were already complete. Did some bodies need to be hidden right away, while others could wait? And what does "buried elsewhere" mean?
And how was an AP reporter on the scene so quickly in a remote tribal area of Pakistan?
Meanwhile, Bill Roggio has an update. (http://inbrief.threatswatch.org/2006/01/abu-khabab-almasri-killed-in-p/)
The strike on the compound in Damadola, Pakistan, where Ayman al-Zawahiri. al-Qaeda’s number two in Command, was believed to be attending a dinner to celebrate a Mulslim holiday, has netted at least one high-level al-Qaeda operative. Pakistani intelligence has confirmed that Abu Khabab al-Masri, al-Qaeda’s chief bomb maker and chemical weapons expert. Counterterrism expert Dan Darling reported that Masri ran al-Qaeda’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, known as “Project al-Zabadi” and was likely involved in the foiled Amman WMD attack.
Then there's this little tidbit. (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/01/17/pakistan.strike.foreign/index.html)
Some of the foreigners killed in last Friday's U.S. airstrike in the remote Pakistani village of Damadola were of Egyptian origin, according to a knowledgeable source.
Vancouver
01-18-2006, 07:09 PM
ABC, quoting a Pakistani official, say further that the dead include
"Khalid Habib, the al Qaeda operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for al Qaeda"
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigat...ory?id=1517986
Vancouver
01-18-2006, 07:34 PM
Sir Rudolph, I figure the Pakistanis knew more about this than they are admitting. Would the Americans would just blow the place up with no way of determining who got killed? The Pakis were called in, to stop escaping vehicles, maybe, or at least to pick up the pieces. That could help to explain the early AP story.
Pakistan: Al Qaeda Bomb Maker Killed
January 18, 2006 2206 GMT
Pakistani officials reported Jan. 18 that an al Qaeda bomb maker was among those killed in a U.S. airstrike on the village of Damadola near the Afghan border on Jan. 13. According to Pakistani officials, Midhat Mursi, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was one of three known senior al Qaeda members present at a house in the village that was attacked by U.S. aircraft, killing 18 people. Mursi was reportedly a master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert.
http://www.stratfor.com/index.php
More about Abu Khabab ... now Shish Kebab. (http://www.rantburg.com/popThug.php?&T=Abu%20Khabab%20al-Masri&ID=140166)
http://www.rantburg.com/images/72virgins.JPG
More about Abu Khabab ... now Shish Kebab. (http://www.rantburg.com/popThug.php?&T=Abu%20Khabab%20al-Masri&ID=140166)
LOL!
.
Marwan al-Suri, Abd Hadi al-Iraqi may also be dancing with virgins. (http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wopaki0119,0,1484586.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines)
http://www.rantburg.com/images/FatLadySings.jpg
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Two al-Qaida militants THUGS reported missing and suspected killed in Friday's U.S. missile attack in Pakistan are key regional commanders along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Afghan and Pakistani analysts said.
The administrator of Pakistan's Bajaur border district said Tuesday that four or five non-Pakistani militants THUGS had died -- along with 13 to 18 Pakistani residents -- in the missile attack on homes in the village of Damadola. Two of the dead may be an Egyptian known as Abu Ubaidah and a Syrian, Marwan As-Suri, said an Afghan source with links to al-Qaida.
Abu Ubaidah, in his mid-40s, is deputy commander of al-Qaida forces in Kunar, a ruggedly mountainous province where U.S. troops fought offensives last year to clear out militants, said the source, who asked not to be identified. Kunar is one of three or four Afghan provinces where the war in Afghanistan remains at its most intensive -- and one reason is that guerrillas have been able to flee across the border into Pakistan.
Marwan As-Suri, believed to be in his 30s, is a Syrian who recently had been appointed to head al-Qaida operations in part of the Pakistani areas bordering Kunar, the Afghan said.
ABC News reported yesterday that a third militant (THUG, known as al-Qaida's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert, also was killed. Pakistani authorities identified him as Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri. ABC also cited Pakistani officials as saying Khalid Habib and Abdul Rehman al-Magrabi, both al-Qaida operations chiefs, were killed.
The missiles destroyed three homes in Damadola hours after a dinner for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Bajaur district's administrator, Fahim Wazir, said Tuesday that 10 to 12 non-Pakistani militants had been invited to the feast. Pakistani intelligence sources have told journalists in Pakistan that one invited guest who did not attend was al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
U.S. officials, apparently concluding that Zawahri was present, ordered the attack, for the first news of the strike came from American intelligence sources in Washington who said al-Zawahri had been killed.
According to the Afghan source, another important al-Qaida invitee to the dinner was Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi, who reportedly has served as a liaison between al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida-backed guerrilla leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It was not clear whether Al-Iraqi attended and there was no report that he was missing.
The valleys of Kunar and Bajaur are separated by a mountain ridge that rises to 10,000 feet. An Associated Press reporter who visited the main border crossing, in the Nava Pass, reported yesterday that "a rusting gate," manned by inattentive guards, "is all that divides the two countries." U.S. forces and the Afghan government are trying to reinforce the border by creating an elite force of local tribesmen to guard it.
Both Kunar and Bajaur have deeply rooted Islamic militant groups that help make the area a haven for guerrillas of various groups.
In Kunar, "I got them all," a U.S. Army commander, Lt. Col. Peter Munster, told the AP last summer. "Taliban, al-Qaida ... [Hezb-I-Islami, an Afghan guerrilla faction led by the the militant Gulbuddin Hekmatyar], foreign fighters, smugglers and other criminals. They are like the Mafia."
In June, militant fighters in Kunar inflicted one of the biggest losses of the Afghan war on the U.S. military, killing three Navy SEAL commandos in a ground attack and 16 more soldiers in the shoot-down of a helicopter flying into the battle.
The U.S. military fought offensives in August and November meant to clear Kunar's steep, wooded valleys of guerrillas. But each time, they slipped away to return later, and the province remains a hot spot in the war.
Fog lifts on Damadola air strike
There have been a lot of conflicting statements and a fake photo designed to suggest that that the Damadola strike was clumsy and ineffective in getting the target and that anger in Pakistan and innocent victims were the principal result of the effort. But the fog is clearing. It appears that this was a well- conceived joint US-Pakistani intelligence operation which was very effective.
A Pakistani official who is unnamed in the story gives us some detail:
Ayman al-Zawahri, the apparent target of the U.S. attack Jan. 13, met his deputy, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, in Damadola last year, the security official said.
Al-Libbi, a Libyan, had confessed to Pakistani interrogators after his capture in May 2005 he met al-Zawahri at Damadola, near the Afghan border, earlier in the year. Al-Libbi was captured after a shootout in another remote hamlet in northwestern Pakistan.
Another high-ranking intelligence official confirmed al-Libbi’s account of the meeting, which took place a few months before his arrest. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“His statement was later verified and we were able to confirm that al-Zawahri visited Damadola,” the first official said.
The home was among three destroyed in the pre-dawn airstrike Jan. 13, which killed 13 villagers.
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence — with the aid of local tribesmen and Afghans — began monitoring the home after al-Libbi’s confession, the officials said.
This was a well-surveilled site. And the intelligence apparently sound. I think Zawahiri died in that operation . Either we know this and are keeping it quiet for operational reasons or his was one of the four or five bodies reportedly removed from the site by unknown persons to preclude a solid identification without which it would be imprudent to announce he was killed.
Captain Ed Morrisey analyzed the last apparently rather old audio tape by Zawahiri just released. Like me, he thinks Zawahiri died there and that his post-strike taped message was a eulogy.
It would seem that the intent of posting this recording could be to reassure AQ agents that the chief of operations still lives, and that he intends to continue in the fight. It could also just be a random tape that someone wanted to post for its message, its call to martyrdom.
However, it could be something else entirely; it could be a eulogy for a martyred leader. The selection of Zawahiri reading a poem of martyred warriors sounds a bit too coincidental, especially given the circumstances of the missile attack.
A quick review: the CIA gets intel that Zawahiri and several high-level AQ leaders will meet to discuss plans for a spring offensive in Afghanistan in a compound in Damadola. In at least two separate attacks, Hellfire missiles blow up three of the buildings in the compound, killing a number of people. At first, the Pakistanis tell the US that all of the dead were civilians, a family of jewelers—but we find out that at least five bodies got immediately carted away by “foreigners” before anyone could get a chance to see them. We then find out that at least three of the dead were indeed high-level AQ operatives … who showed up even after Zawahiri decided not to come?
Why would they show up to a planning meeting if the decision-maker had canceled out?
And were the three people identified as having been killed really so important that their bodies could not be left behind for identification?Now, a couple of weeks afterward, we have a tape of Zawahiri recalling martyrs by name, but not those who died in Damadola, and giving a poetry reading extolling the virtues of martyrdom by referencing battles long since past. It sounds quite a bit like an Islamist giving Zawahiri an opportunity to eulogize himself.
Saturday’s report from the Times(UK) adds to my suspicion that Zawahiri was killed in the strike and his body removed to make forensic proof of his death impossible:
Officials from two different Pakistani intelligence agencies claimed Zawahiri had been with the group attending the feast, and that he was there to give support to al-Masri, who was planning to marry a local woman.
“Since it is the tradition that the prospective groom will not propose to the prospective bride himself, al-Masri was represented by Zawahiri who acted as his guardian as per Islamic tradition,” said one of the officials.
The woman was a 30-year-old widow with a seven-year-old son. Her husband was a mujaheddin who had been killed fighting with the Taliban shortly after the American-led coalition ousted the Islamic regime, the sources said.
The terrorists’ bodies were spirited away for burial by local sympathisers. They have yet to be recovered for checks that might confirm their identities.
I certainly don’t know if Zawahiri is dead. And I do not criticize the Pakistani or U.S. authorities for suggesting he wasn’t killed in the absence of forensic proof.
But it is clear as the fog lifts that this was not a clumsy U.S. military gaffe, but rather a joint operation which further cripples al Qaeda whether or not Zawahiri escaped to a deep cover in an area where there is a great deal of surveillance and interdiction taking place. Clarice Feldman 1 23 06
http://americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=4259
Vancouver
01-23-2006, 08:45 PM
It appears that this was a well-conceived joint US-Pakistani intelligence operation...The author didn't need to go to
A Pakistani official who is unnamed in the story...
to get that information. All he needed to do was read #24 in this very thread! :D
Fog lifts on Damadola air strike
There have been a lot of conflicting statements and a fake photo designed to suggest that that the Damadola strike was clumsy and ineffective in getting the target and that anger in Pakistan and innocent victims were the principal result of the effort. But the fog is clearing. It appears that this was a well- conceived joint US-Pakistani intelligence operation which was very effective.
A Pakistani official who is unnamed in the story gives us some detail:
Ayman al-Zawahri, the apparent target of the U.S. attack Jan. 13, met his deputy, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, in Damadola last year, the security official said.
Al-Libbi, a Libyan, had confessed to Pakistani interrogators after his capture in May 2005 he met al-Zawahri at Damadola, near the Afghan border, earlier in the year. Al-Libbi was captured after a shootout in another remote hamlet in northwestern Pakistan.
Another high-ranking intelligence official confirmed al-Libbi’s account of the meeting, which took place a few months before his arrest. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“His statement was later verified and we were able to confirm that al-Zawahri visited Damadola,” the first official said.
The home was among three destroyed in the pre-dawn airstrike Jan. 13, which killed 13 villagers.
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence — with the aid of local tribesmen and Afghans — began monitoring the home after al-Libbi’s confession, the officials said.
This was a well-surveilled site. And the intelligence apparently sound. I think Zawahiri died in that operation . Either we know this and are keeping it quiet for operational reasons or his was one of the four or five bodies reportedly removed from the site by unknown persons to preclude a solid identification without which it would be imprudent to announce he was killed.
Captain Ed Morrisey analyzed the last apparently rather old audio tape by Zawahiri just released. Like me, he thinks Zawahiri died there and that his post-strike taped message was a eulogy.
It would seem that the intent of posting this recording could be to reassure AQ agents that the chief of operations still lives, and that he intends to continue in the fight. It could also just be a random tape that someone wanted to post for its message, its call to martyrdom.
However, it could be something else entirely; it could be a eulogy for a martyred leader. The selection of Zawahiri reading a poem of martyred warriors sounds a bit too coincidental, especially given the circumstances of the missile attack.
A quick review: the CIA gets intel that Zawahiri and several high-level AQ leaders will meet to discuss plans for a spring offensive in Afghanistan in a compound in Damadola. In at least two separate attacks, Hellfire missiles blow up three of the buildings in the compound, killing a number of people. At first, the Pakistanis tell the US that all of the dead were civilians, a family of jewelers—but we find out that at least five bodies got immediately carted away by “foreigners” before anyone could get a chance to see them. We then find out that at least three of the dead were indeed high-level AQ operatives … who showed up even after Zawahiri decided not to come?
Why would they show up to a planning meeting if the decision-maker had canceled out?
And were the three people identified as having been killed really so important that their bodies could not be left behind for identification?Now, a couple of weeks afterward, we have a tape of Zawahiri recalling martyrs by name, but not those who died in Damadola, and giving a poetry reading extolling the virtues of martyrdom by referencing battles long since past. It sounds quite a bit like an Islamist giving Zawahiri an opportunity to eulogize himself.
Saturday’s report from the Times(UK) adds to my suspicion that Zawahiri was killed in the strike and his body removed to make forensic proof of his death impossible:
Officials from two different Pakistani intelligence agencies claimed Zawahiri had been with the group attending the feast, and that he was there to give support to al-Masri, who was planning to marry a local woman.
“Since it is the tradition that the prospective groom will not propose to the prospective bride himself, al-Masri was represented by Zawahiri who acted as his guardian as per Islamic tradition,” said one of the officials.
The woman was a 30-year-old widow with a seven-year-old son. Her husband was a mujaheddin who had been killed fighting with the Taliban shortly after the American-led coalition ousted the Islamic regime, the sources said.
The terrorists’ bodies were spirited away for burial by local sympathisers. They have yet to be recovered for checks that might confirm their identities.
I certainly don’t know if Zawahiri is dead. And I do not criticize the Pakistani or U.S. authorities for suggesting he wasn’t killed in the absence of forensic proof.
But it is clear as the fog lifts that this was not a clumsy U.S. military gaffe, but rather a joint operation which further cripples al Qaeda whether or not Zawahiri escaped to a deep cover in an area where there is a great deal of surveillance and interdiction taking place. Clarice Feldman 1 23 06
http://americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=4259
Hmmm.......certainly the plot thickens. However, I don't think the fog has cleared just yet. It certainly does add weight to my earlier comment on another thread. The fact that the attacks on all three houses were not simultaneous also adds to the possibility that someone was able to assist important persons (dead or alive) to escape before the next fatal attack.
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=504964#post504964 (post #13)
I'm posting this news story here as it has some interesting snippets of information which I have highlighted. The one highlighted in red is indeed intriguing. Why would you run with your wife to "a nearby mountain" and leave your children behind? Unless...........perhaps something to hide?
-----------------------------------------------
Among the mourners was Shah Zaman, who lost two sons and a daughter in the attack. “I ran out and saw planes,” he said. “I ran towards a nearby mountain with my wife. When we were running we heard three more explosions and I saw my home being hit.”
I wonder where Shah Zaman is now??? :rolleyes:
Abu Khabab al-Masri (WMD committee head)
Abd Rahman al-Masri al-Maghribi (al-Zawahiri's son-in-law, al-Qaeda commander)
Abu Ubeidah al-Masri (Kunar operations chief)
Marwan al-Suri (Waziristan operations chief)
Khalid Habib (southeastern Afghanistan commander)
Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi (southwestern Afghanistan commander)
Add to that Maulana Faqir Mohammed and Maulana Liaqat (local leaders of the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Sha'riah Mohammed, apparently) and it looks like that was quite a dinner they had planned. I would have settled for nailing Khabab alone, but this looks like the biggest single decapitation strike on the al-Qaeda leadership since Tora Bora.
Dan Darling
www.regnumcrucis.blogspot.com
It appears one HVT was missed. (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/30/D8FF5HF80.html)
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