Abu Laith al Libi is
seen in an undated video grab made available through the SITE
Intelligence Group. (Photo: SITE Intelligence
Group/Handout/Reuters)
One of al-Qaida's top commanders in Afghanistan has been killed,
CNN reported on Thursday.
Citing a Western official and a senior US military official, CNN
reported that the commander, identified as Abu Laith al-Libi, was a
key link between Taliban and al-Qaida and ranked as one of the
United States military's 12 most-wanted men.
Al-Libi, a 41-year-old Libyan descent, was also believed to have
been behind the February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in
Afghanistan while Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting the
country, according to the report.
CNN Middle East analyst Octavia Nasr called the slain commander
the No. 3 figure in the al-Qaida and fourth in the world.
Before joining al-Qaida, he was a leader of the Libyan Islamic
Fighting Group, which eventually merged with al-Qaida and was
responsible for planning attacks throughout North Africa and the
Middle East, a counter terrorism official told CNN.
Al-Libi's death was first announced by an Islamist website used
by Osama Bin Laden's terror network on Thursday.
"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.
However, it did not say how and where al-Libi was killed.
The military unit that is responsible for searching for
al-Libiin Afghanistan, Combined Joint Task Force-82, told CNN that
they were not aware of al-Libi's death.
CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reported that if
al-Libi died in Pakistan, it was unlikely that he was killed by US
ground troops that do not operate inside the Pakistani border.
However, the possibility remains that he was killed by a missile
fired from a drone operated by the Central Investigation Agency and
other US government agencies, Starr said.
The Pakistani military said earlier that an explosion occurred
in North Waziristan on Tuesday, leaving 12 dead, but it was unclear
whether al-Libi was among those killed.
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(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2008)
