Agency officials ascertained this week that Usama al-Kini, a Kenyan national who was described as al-Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan, was killed in the Jan. 1 missile strike, along with his lieutenant, identified as Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, the sources said. Both men were associated with a string of suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent months and also allegedly helped plan the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.
Kini, whose given name was Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, had trained terrorists in Africa in the 1990s and served as a central planner of the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, U.S. officials said. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with those attacks and has been on the FBI’s list of the most-wanted terrorists ever since.
Terrorism experts have cautioned that al-Qaeda has shown surprising resilience, quickly replacing leaders who are killed or captured. Still, there have been few occasions since 2001 when the group lost so many top operatives so quickly. Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert and Georgetown University professor, said the agency’s tactics appear to be cutting dramatically into al-Qaeda’s top ranks with strikes deep into a lawless border region that insurgents long regarded as a sanctuary.
“It is a stunning testament of the accuracy of intelligence that the United States is obtaining,” Hoffman said. “Either we have built up an impressive network of sources that facilitates such precision targeting, or the Pakistani authorities are cooperating big-time.”
Added the U.S. counterterrorism official: “The continuous loss of senior talent has to have a pretty serious effect.”
via Jan. 1 Attack By CIA Killed Two Leaders Of Al-Qaeda – washingtonpost.com.
Will Obama’s harsh rhetoric on Pakistan or his absurd selection of no-experience Leon Panetta as CIA head set these advances back? Time will tell.
Tags: al qaeda, Legal, Life, Media, military, News, Obama, Politics, Religion, terrorism
