AFGHANISTAN:An al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, one of the group's most senior leaders, has been killed, a website used by the group said yesterday. The killing was later confirmed by a senior US defence official.
It was not clear whether the death of Abu Laith al-Libi, described as a field commander by western intelligence officials, was linked to a suspected US missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region this week.
"We congratulate the Islamic nation on the martyrdom of Sheikh . . . Abu Laith al-Libi. May God accept him [ as a martyr]," said the Ekhlaas.org website.
A Pakistani daily, The News, reported that the suspected US strike had targeted Libi and another senior figure, Obaidah al-Masri, although residents in the tribal area had said the attack had targeted second- or third-tier al-Qaeda leaders.
Tribesmen had said a deputy of Libi, a senior al-Qaeda leader, had been staying in the area, which borders Afghanistan, and was among the dead, according to an intelligence official.
A western official said there were indications Libi had died: "At this point there is no reason to doubt that he is dead. There are indications that he is in fact dead," the official said.
"This individual is in the top half-dozen figures in al-Qaeda . . . who has a long record of military activity on behalf of al-Qaeda."
A Libyan, Libi appeared in a video issued in November with al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, to announce that a Libyan Islamist group had joined the militant organisation.
Islamist websites have carried messages from Libi, including one in May in which he said al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was willing to exchange prisoners with Britain and other Wwestern countries.
In 2002, acting as an al-Qaeda spokesman, Libi was the first from the group to bring news that Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar were alive after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. The US military has said he helped organize the Feb. 27th, 2007, bombing of an American air base at Bagram, Afghanistan, while Vice-President Dick Cheney was visiting.