Eight Germans who were killed in a US Predator airstrike on Oct. 4 near the Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold of Mir Ali in North Waziristan have been identified.
Pakistani officials and local tribesmen said the eight Germans “were holding a crucial meeting” at a compound in the town of Mosaki just outside the town of Mir Ali, The Express Tribune reported. The strike occurred near the Masjid Bilal. Early reports indicated that the strike took place at the mosque.
The eight Germans were members of the Islamic Jihad Group (or Islamic Jihad Union), an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The Islamic Jihad Group is based out of the Mir Ali region and is closely allied with al Qaeda.
Among those killed were three senior members of the IJU: Brusely, also known as Fayyaz, who served as the operations chief for the Islamic Jihad Group; Gagreen Gill, also known as Siraj, who was in charge of finances; and Milton Smith, also known as Jamal, who was described as an “expert bomb maker.”
The other Germans killed were Wash (Mustafa), Johnson (Wasal), Anderson (Waqas), Paterson (Shaheen), and Peterson Mckenzie (Usman). Both Wash and Johnson were both Germans and Saudi passport holders.
The eight Germans were targeted based on intelligence obtained from Rami Mackenzie, a German who was detained in June in the Pakistani district of Bannu, which borders North Waziristan. Mackenzie, who is said to be an expert at manufacturing suicide bombs, was wearing a burka when he was captured along with his family by Pakistani police.
The eight Germans are the latest Europeans killed in US strikes in North Waziristan since the discovery of an al Qaeda plot that targeted several major European cities and was modeled after the terror assault on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.
On Sept. 8, eight other Germans and two Britons were reported killed in a Predator strike in the al Qaeda stronghold of Datta Khel. An Islamic Jihad Group commander known as Qureshi was also reported killed in the attack. Qureshi specialized in training Germans to conduct attacks in their home country. Two of the Germans were identified as Abu Askar, and Imran Almani. The Briton, who was identified as Abdul Jabbar, had been appointed the leader of the Islamic Army of Great Britain and was tasked with carrying out terror assaults in Britain, France, and Germany, using assault rifles and suicide vests.
German and Turkish Muslims make up a significant portion of the Islamic Jihad Group. Its fighters are often referred to as German Taliban, and they carry out attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last year, the Islamic Jihad Group released video of ‘German Taliban villages’ in Waziristan. Its fighters were seen training at camps and conducting military operations.
14 Comments
The names of those 8 Germans are not German at all. They are also not Arabic. Do they represent names given by security forces?
Great news! Kepp on the good work. Passport Germans are not germans.
None of those eight names are german, they are all english, as in ethnic english.
So unless you are dealing with a wave of english converts who migrated to Germany before going jihadi, or native muslims with german passports who for some reason got themselves english names, Id say that the “identification” is bogus.
That leaves two options:
1) Its TOTAL BS
2) The names are true, and the nationality was mis-reported. That still leaves us with a whopping 8 converts og 8 pakistanis et al who go ethnic english names.
Im leaning towards no 1.
Germans are always suckers for extremism.
Are you kidding me? There’s not a single German name among those. Those are all English or Scandinavian first and last names.
“Brusely”, “Gill”, “Smith”, “Wash”, “Johnson”, “Anderson”, “Paterson”, “Mckenzie” – none of these names indicates a German or Turkish background; am I missing something, or is this whole article a little suspicious?
It doesn’t sound like the guy disguised in the burqa was all that invested in glorious martyrdom.
These individuals are most likely naturalized german citizens. Top of the list are ethnic turks.
If you look back across previous reports from Pakistani’s they seem to be given verbally to the media so spellings (phonetic translations of someone with a strong Urdu accent) can be all over the place.
I commented on the Mackezie name before. Originally it was “Rami Mackenzie” given details of the plot to the Pakistanis but a one later repot report it’s Rami Makanesi (Der Speigel and other sources) for the person who gave the info on the plot which does sound less Scottish and possibly more Middle Eastern. He is identified as “a German of Syrian descent”. The reporters listening to the verbal reports I presume are English speakers so they render the name in Scottish form.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8094116/Al-Qaeda-plotted-to-take-hostages-in-Mumbai-style-attacks-on-Britain.html
Some of this is selection above e.g. Gagreen Gill (“a German of Turkish origin”) does sound Turkish to me if you include both the first name and second name.
I suspect you’ll find a similar mangling in the other names.
The BDU seems to know who they are:
For what it’s worth, one of my best buddies in the service was named Johnsen. His grandfather had been a Panzer tank commander in WWII. My mothers maiden name is German, but the Americanized surname is quite different. As for the Irish surname, don’t the Chileans have a national hero whose last name starts with O’?
Just because they weren’t all called Rutger Hauer doesn’t mean they weren’t German. Come on people, there are people living all over the world with strange or different names.
However, if they were British I would be more than happy, I’m from the UK and if they want to fight their own country then I hope more of them go over there so we can kill them.
“”Brusely”, “Gill”, “Smith”, “Wash”, “Johnson”, “Anderson”, “Paterson”, “Mckenzie” – none of these names indicates a German or Turkish background; am I missing something, or is this whole article a little suspicious?”
Those aren’t their real names. That’s the name US intel gave them when thehy started hunting them, think of it like a callsign.
Let’s not forget that Daud Gilani became David Headley.
Bill, it was nice to see you on BBC news last night talking about the Yemeni airline bombing effort.
@Durendal: Do you have a cite for that?
They’re not codenames … see my earlier comment on the confusion between “Mackenzie” and the real name “Makanesi”.