No word on whether he qualifies as the umpteenth "No. 3" of al-Qaeda to be neutralized, or if that unlucky number has just been retired.
The standard expressions of indignation from Pakistan are almost certainly forthcoming. "US officials: Al-Qaida ops chief killed by CIA," by Kimberly Dozier for the Associated Press, September 15:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top al-Qaida operative was killed earlier this week in Pakistan's tribal areas, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Thursday. The death landed another blow against the besieged terrorist network.
The man killed was Abu Hafs al-Shahri, whom two U.S. officials describe as al-Qaida's chief of operations in Pakistan.
Though his name is little known beyond intelligence circles, Al-Shahri is described as dangerous by both the Pakistani and U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe classified counterterrorist operations.
He was apparently killed by a CIA drone strike in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, though officials would not describe the method since the program is classified. A drone strike was reported by locals on Sunday night.
The officials say al-Shahri worked closely with the Pakistani Taliban to carry out attacks inside Pakistan, and was also a contender to assume some duties of al-Qaida's second in command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. Al-Rahman was killed by a CIA drone strike in late August.
U.S. officials believe they can cripple the core al-Qaida organization if they take out the top four or five figures, following the killing in May of al-Qaida chief Osama by Laden by Navy SEALs. Eight of the network's top 20 leaders were killed this year alone, according to the Pentagon's undersecretary for defense intelligence, Michael Vickers, in remarks this week. Vickers predicted that with sustained counterterrorist operations, "within 18-24 months, core al-Qaida's cohesion and operational capabilities could be degraded to the point that the group could fragment and exist mostly as a propaganda arm."
But Vickers and CIA director David Petraeus said al-Qaida's offshoots will remain a serious threat to the U.S.
A Pakistani intelligence official says Pakistani operations chief al-Shahri was a Saudi national, who had lived in the tribal regions of Pakistan, bordering eastern Afghanistan, since 2002.
One of the U.S. officials said the same individual is No. 11 on Saudi Arabia's top-85 most wanted terror suspects, where his full name is listed as Osama Hamoud Gharman Al-Shihri. The official said the same person is No. 68 on Interpol's most wanted list, where his name was spelled "Al-Shehri" and his birthdate was listed as Sept. 17, 1981.
Al-Shahri engaged in liaison mainly with Pakistan's Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan to conduct coordinated attacks against targets inside Pakistan, one of the U.S. officials said. But al-Qaida also inspired the Pakistani Taliban to undertake its first known overseas attack, when a U.S. based operative tried and failed to detonate a car bomb in Times Square last year.
Al-Shahri's killing was first reported by NBC News.
Al-Qaida's senior planner of global terror operations, Adnan Shukrijumah, remains at large.
If true, good! One dog less!
But Vickers and CIA director David Petraeus said al-Qaida's offshoots will remain a serious threat to the U.S.
Yes...offshoots...There are many...In fact, there is a never ending line of them...The US can kill every Al-Qaeda and every Taliban, and the jihad against the west will continue because of 'offshoots'...Actually there are no 'offshoots' in Islam because of the Quran and examples of Mahound...They all work for Allah, but in different departments...All of Islams departments have the same goal...Fight them until the entire world is for Allah...As I have pointed out before, 'until' is not achievable, so never ending war against harb and kufr is required...The only way to end jihad is to make it too expensive to wage it...You cannot talk them out of it because it is canonized in Allah's books...All departments of jihad use them as operations manuals...Funding jihad while at the same time fighting it, is a form of insanity...
A serious case of cognitive dissonance...I doubt that any gov saddled with that ever won a war...
DS said above:
"The only way to end jihad is to make it too expensive to wage it..."
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Do you mean dollars? I'm not being sarcastic. Because if we openly espouse liquidation of human life in an effort to convince others to not do so, aren't we falling into a similar, "dissonant trap"?
Has not our anti-jihadist stance then turned on us and bitten us in the derrier? If so, should we not be, instead, actively pursuing strictly non-violent answers (rhetoric) to an overtly violent phenomena?
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If you meant dollars (riyals, dirhams, whatever), then I agree. If you meant dollars for expensive missiles fired from drones, it's, IMHO, just whack-a mole, high-tech style.
Pakistan is a den of Jihadis...
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110915-agenda-george-friedman-taliban-strategy?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20110916&utm_term=agenda&utm_content=video&elq=9b273aeda1a54b848c6327c0cac01a93
Very good points guys. But Dave, reread what swami wrote.There is no peaceful answer. According to the quoran, jihad is to be waged until the whole world is under allah/islam. Only when we accept that, can we begin to take proper action. Our problem is that our citizens are (for now) not capable of accepting "TOTAL WAR", in it's pure, basic, primitive sense. Yes that means to kill all, since we don't allow slavery. There are no ideological goals or not flags to capture. Just kill every one of them. Yes, to defeat them we must employ the same tactics. We must instill fear in the hearts of every mooselip wherever they live. In their book of war(quran), the first to ask for peace is the weakest and any concessions were due them anyway.
Only when America accepts war as war, and not some tv entertainment, fit for family viewing over dinner,can we get down the the business of war, which is killing in all it's gore, agony and pain. War should never be fit for "prime-time".
In one way we owe an apology to Sadam Hussain. Although crude and distasteful as they were, his methods for keeping his people under control were the only thing they understood. The oppression came not from his regime, but from islam. We need to imploye the tactics of the Nazis when they occupied a country. They kill one of yours, kill 100 of theirs INDISCRIMINATELY. These are the things that they understand.