The US killed a senior al Qaeda military commander during a recent drone strike in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.
Sheikh Yasin Al Kuwaiti, who was killed in a US drone strike on Jan. 8, was a “key al Qaeda paramilitary commander” who was “very high up the food chain,” a US intelligence official who tracks the terror group in Pakistan’s tribal areas told The Long War Journal. Sheikh Yasin was a top commander and trainer for the Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, al Qaeda’s military cadre [for more information on the the Lashkar al Zil, see LWJ report, Al Qaeda’s paramilitary ‘Shadow Army’].
Sheikh Yasin was also described as a “foreign tactical trainer” by Reuters and “a senior Al Qaeda operative” by Dawn on the day that he was reported killed.
Two unidentified “Uzbeks,” likely from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan or its splinter group, the Islamic Jihad Group, as well as Sheikh Yasin’s wife and daughter, were also reported to have been killed in the airstrike that targeted his home.
Sheikh Yasin, a Kuwaiti citizen, was “married [to] the daughter of a local tribesman,” according to Dawn. Al Qaeda commanders and fighters have lived in Pakistan’s tribal agencies for decades, and often marry locally to cement ties to the Taliban and the tribes.
Sheikh Yasin is part of al Qaeda’s deep bench of leaders who have replaced others killed by drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas and by US airstrikes and special operations raids across the border in Afghanistan. He stepped in for top al Qaeda leaders in the Lashkar al Zil who have been killed in strikes over the past several years, such as Abdullah Said al Libi, the unit’s commander, and Zuhaib al Zahibi, a “general.” Additionally, Pakistani jihadists have played an increasingly important role in backfilling leadership positions for foreign al Qaeda leaders who have been killed in drone strikes and special operations raids in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The targeting of Sheikh Yasin contradicts Obama administration claims that only two senior al Qaeda leaders, Ayman al Zawahiri and Abu Yahya al Libi, were left in the organization, and that the terror group would collapse once the two leaders were killed. Abu Yahya al Libi was killed in a drone strike in June 2012; and five other senior and midlevel al Qaeda leaders have also been killed in strikes since his death. Ayman al Zawahiri remains untouched and has released numerous propaganda tapes indicating that al Qaeda’s infrastructure remains in place. Several other top al Qaeda leaders are also thought to be operating in Pakistan, beyond the reach of the US, as the drones have been confined to small kill boxes in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan.
11 Comments
Thank you Bill for this information. You and your colleagues continue to be the most accurate and most reliable source of information on the War on Terror on the web.
Agree with Shade. Recommended the LWJ to a liberal friend, over Jack and Ice, just last evening.
I third that Bill, not only do you deliver unfiltered news but you and LWJ commentators offer many insights never discussed anywhere else. You’re building the authoratative site for diseminating late breaking news. Cheers!
Great reporting. It’s not about liberals and conservatives, it’s about freedom-loving Americans and our willingness to kill our enemies in their homes, not ours. Bravo, Mr. Roggio!
thanks for the info
Bill your work is very accurate. Thank you.
Liberals like to see when Terrorists are brought to Justice too! LWJ fan 4 Life!
Bill,
Heartening news ! Please keep up your reportage. You’re an invaluable news source on the AfPak conflict and I salute the efforts you and your staff take to elucidate and inform……..the world ?
Just as an aside, what are your thoughts on the Belhaj legal case against Mark Allen/SIS on his rendition ?
I too wish to thank Mr Roggio and his staff for an excellent site. What brings me back is the fact that he names names. More often than not, when the MSM actually reports an incident, they fail to name the identirties of those killed, unless it’s a real bigshot.
Perhaps it’s not viewed as being important to the average American viewer/reader, but to some of us who have worked over there, we are still interested, even if posted elsewhere or retired today.
I thank you for the attention to detail in every report.
I totally agree with Mr. Roggio. Zawahiri is clearly not the only al-Qaeda leader left. Saif al-Adel, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah and Abd al-Aziz al-Masri are high ranking members still at large. They are living in Iran, which isn’t filled with CIA drones.
Thanks Bill, I believe Ayman Al-Zawahiri to be extremely dangerous