01-10-2009, 12:33 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Chief of al Qaeda in Pakistan and lieutenant killed by US drone attack </b>
The head of al Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed in the past few days, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP late on January 8, reportedly struck by a missile fired from an unmanned drone, Dawn reported. The men are believed to be <b>Kenyan national Usama al-Kini, described as al Qaeda''s chief of operations in Pakistan and his lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan</b>. "There is every reason to believe that these two top terrorist figures are dead," said an unnamed source, adding that the duo was killed "within the last week." The counterintelligence source did not say how the men died, but according to Washington Post, which first reported the story, the duo was killed in a January 1 missile attack near Karikot in South Waziristan. The militants died after being struck with 45 kilo Hellfire missile fired from a pilot-less Predator drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, Washington Post reported.
Officials believe al-Kini was behind the September 2008 car bombing of Islamabad''s Marriott Hotel that killed 60 people. He is also linked to a suicide attack on late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto''s convoy as it traveled through Karachi upon her arrival in Pakistan on October 18, 2008. <b>The two men are also on the FBI''s most wanted list for links with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa.</b>
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The head of al Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed in the past few days, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP late on January 8, reportedly struck by a missile fired from an unmanned drone, Dawn reported. The men are believed to be <b>Kenyan national Usama al-Kini, described as al Qaeda''s chief of operations in Pakistan and his lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan</b>. "There is every reason to believe that these two top terrorist figures are dead," said an unnamed source, adding that the duo was killed "within the last week." The counterintelligence source did not say how the men died, but according to Washington Post, which first reported the story, the duo was killed in a January 1 missile attack near Karikot in South Waziristan. The militants died after being struck with 45 kilo Hellfire missile fired from a pilot-less Predator drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, Washington Post reported.
Officials believe al-Kini was behind the September 2008 car bombing of Islamabad''s Marriott Hotel that killed 60 people. He is also linked to a suicide attack on late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto''s convoy as it traveled through Karachi upon her arrival in Pakistan on October 18, 2008. <b>The two men are also on the FBI''s most wanted list for links with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa.</b>
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