Drone killing:
Al Qaeda’s second in command dies in a U.S. attack in Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD — Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, was killed in a drone strike in northern Pakistan, a U.S. official said Tuesday, in the biggest single score in the controversial military campaign’s eightyear history.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, described al-Libi as one of al Qaeda’s “most experienced and versatile leaders” and said he had “played a critical role in the group’s planning against the West, providing oversight of the external operations efforts.”
The official did not give details about how al-Libi’s death had been confirmed. In past drone strikes against militant leaders, U.S. intelligence officials monitored cell phone and text and Internet messages to confirm the effects of the missions.
The drone strike occurred Monday in a small village outside Mir Ali, the capital of North Waziristan province. At the time, U.S. officials announced that al-Libi had been the strike’s target but could not confirm his condition. Pakistanis living in the area of the strike reported that he had been either killed or seriously wounded, and that 15 other people had died.
Al-Libi, believed to be in his late 40s, became al-Qaida’s deputy, behind Ayman al-Zawahri, after a U.S. commando raid killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011. He already had a high profile in the militant world: He escaped the U.S. prison at Bagram, Afghanistan, in 2005 and went on to make a series of videos that established him as a leading voice calling for attacks on the United States — and as a charismatic focal point for a terrorist group that was widely seen as being in decline.
This is not the first time al-Libi has been reported to have been killed in a U.S. drone strike: Similar announcements were made in December 2009 after a strike in South Waziristan. But if this U.S. report is borne out, it would be an important chapter in an air strike campaign that has infuriated Pakistani officials but has remained one of the United States’ most effective tools in fighting militant leaders.
Characterizing what the loss would mean to al Qaeda, the U.S. official said: “Zawahri will be hard-pressed to find any one person who can readily step into Abu Yahya’s shoes — in addition to his gravitas as a long-standing member of AQ’s leadership, Abu Yahya’s religious credentials gave him the authority to issue fatwas, operational approvals, and guidance to the core group in Pakistan and regional affiliates. There is no one who even comes close in terms of replacing the expertise AQ has just lost.”
The drone strike Monday was the third in Pakistan in three days, and the tempo of the strikes picked up greatly after U.S. and Pakistani negotiations to reopen NATO supply lines to Afghanistan bogged down last month. U.S. officials have said in recent days that the increase in strikes was because of improved weather and an increase in cross-border militant operations.