• Abu al-Libi dies in attack on Pakistan compound• Leader of Afghan militants targeted Cheney last year
by Ian Black and Martin Hodgson
(February 01, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) A senior al-Qaida figure in Afghanistan, described by Western officials as one of Osama bin Laden's top six lieutenants, has been killed, it was reported yesterday.
Abu Laith al-Libi was "martyred along with a group of his brothers on the territory of Islamic Pakistan" according to a statement on Ikhlaas.org, a website that often posts communiques from Islamists in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Libi's death may be linked to what is suspected to be a US missile strike in Pakistan's North Waziristan region earlier this week, in which 12 people - several Arabs and central Asians, as well as local Taliban members - are believed to have died. Locals told reporters that they heard US Predator drones flying in the area shortly before the explosion at a compound, and a Pakistani daily newspaper, The News, reported that the attack was targeted at Libi and another senior figure, Obaidah al Masri.
Pakistani officials said they had "no information" indicating that Libi was dead, but the Associated Press quoted a "knowledgeable western official" confirming the death: "It appears that Al-Libi has met his demise."
The killing of such a major al-Qaida figure inside Pakistan has the potential to embarrass President Pervez Musharraf, who repeatedly said he would not sanction US military action against al-Qaida members operating in his country.
Libi is said to have been behind a bombing that killed 23 people at the US base at Bagram last February, during a visit by the vice-president, Dick Cheney.
A US state department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said yesterday: "We have a good dialogue on counter-terrorism with President Musharraf. Pakistan is a sovereign country. We respect the sovereignty of Pakistan."
Libi, whose nom de guerre suggests he was a Libyan national, was among the 12 men most wanted by the Americans, with a bounty of $200,000 on his head.
During the 1980s, he fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and was jailed by Saudi Arabian officials for two years. He was also believed to have plotted an unsuccessful coup against the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy in the mid-1990s.
Intelligence officials believe that Libi was based in Waziristan until late 2003 when he moved back into Afghanistan to take charge of al-Qaida operations.
Reports of his death came on an otherwise bleak day for the Afghan government and its allies. In another alarming sign of the resilience of opposition to Nato's mission, a Taliban suicide bomber assassinated the deputy governor of the southern province of Helmand, where British troops are fighting the militants. Pir Muhammad was attending noon prayers at the mosque in Lashkar Gah when the bomber struck, killing five other people and injuring 18.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which came amid increasingly loud warnings by US officials and other experts that the six-year mission to stabilise Afghanistan is facing a severe crisis.
Earlier, a suicide car bomber killed a civilian and wounded four others in an attack on an Afghan army bus in Kabul.
Most of the 6,000 British troops serving with Nato are based in Helmand. Canada, which has 2,500 troops in Kandahar, is threatening to withdraw them unless the alliance sends additional forces.
The violence came against a background of mounting alarm about the Afghan situation. Oxfam yesterday sent an open letter to the leaders of countries contributing troops and aid calling for "a major change in direction to reduce suffering and avert humanitarian disaster".
The reconstruction effort has suffered underfunding, turf battles between agencies, corruption and Taliban violence.
On Wednesday the US-based Afghanistan Study Group warned that progress made since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 "is under serious threat from resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, and a growing lack of confidence on the part of the Afghan people".
Most wanted
Osama bin Laden The Saudi Islamist chief is the world's most wanted man, with a $25m bounty on his head. Believed to be hiding in Pakistan
Ayman al-Zawahiri Egyptian surgeon, often regarded as the ideological force behind al-Qaida
Mustafa Abu al-Yazid Trusted Egyptian adviser to bin Laden. Identified by the September 11 Commission as al-Qaida's chief financial manager
Atiyah Abd al-Rahman Libyan jihadist who engineered a partnership between al-Qaida and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Saif al-Adel One of several al-Qaida leaders believed to be under house arrest in Iran
Adam Gadahn US convert to Islam known as "Azzam the American"
(Guardian Group)
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