International jihad news: a Canadian citizen who went to Afghanistan to wage jihad has been confirmed dead. This from AP, with thanks to Jean-Luc:
Pakistani authorities have confirmed that Egyptian-born Canadian citizen Ahmed Said Khadr was killed during a raid last year against suspected terrorists in the country’s tense border region, officials said today.
Khadr died in the October raids where eight Al Qaeda suspects were killed and 18 others captured after fierce fighting, said army spokesman Maj.-Gen. Shaukat Sultan. Two Pakistani soldiers also died in the operation.
Genetic testing confirming Khadr’s identity was only completed in the last few days, said Sultan, noting that Khadr had been named on a list of alleged terrorists wanted by U.S. authorities.
Khadr had been arrested in Pakistan in 1995 after the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad was bombed, but he was later released. His son Abdurahman — a Canadian held prisoner at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and freed in October — has said Khadr helped raise money for charitable causes in Afghanistan and wasn’t connected to terrorism.
Abdurahman Khadr had said in Canada last month that his brother Omar also was being held at Guantanamo, and he called for his release.
Another brother, 14-year-old Abdullah Khadr, was badly wounded last fall in a gunfight with Pakistani forces. Pakistani authorities told Ottawa this week that he is being held in the town of Rawalpind.
Officials from the Canadian Embassy in Islamabad met with Abdullah Khadr early this week, and a Foreign Affairs spokesman said Canadian authorities have been in contact with his family in Pakistan.
Abdullah Khadr, the youngest son of Ahmed Said Khadr, is the third of his children to be taken into custody by forces fighting terrorism. He was injured last fall during a raid by Pakistani forces hunting for Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects along the Afghanistan border.
Earlier this month, Pakistan launched another major operation in the border region against suspected foreign terrorists seeking shelter in the rugged area neighbouring Afghanistan. Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and Al Qaeda have launched repeated assaults in Afghanistan since a U.S.-led coalition forced the Taliban from power in late 2001.