Al Libi's killing a major success for the US

Islamabad: A missile strike that killed senior Al Qaida leader Abu Laith Al Libi in Pakistan last week marked the first big success the United States has notched in the region against Osama Bin Laden's group for over two years.

In December 2005, a similar missile attack eliminated Hamza Rabia, an Egyptian jihadi who some analysts said had become Al Qaida number three after a predecessor was caught by Pakistani agents disguised in a burqa that year.

Like Rabia, Libi was targeted by a pilotless Predator aircraft that unleashed a missile on the house he was using in a village near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, a known Al Qaida hot spot in the Pashtun tribal lands on the Afghan border.

At least that is what Pakistani intelligence officials say is what happened, going by the accounts gleaned from members of the Daur tribe in an area that is virtually "no-go" for Pakistan's security forces.

Too embarrassing

The CIA, which operates drones remotely, can't openly claim the kill on Pakistani territory. Nor can the Pakistanis. It is too embarrassing for the Pakistani-US alliance.

"There was an explosion and a few people were killed. How the explosion took place. We don't know," Pakistan's Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz told reporters yesterday, denying knowledge of any missile attack.

But it was virtually a perfect hit, taking down not only Libi but a dozen Arab and Central Asian fighters with him, while no local people were killed.

Pakistani tribes have protested, seethed and sought revenge when similar strikes in the past killed their kinfolk.

Libi, by all accounts, was a significant member of Bin Laden's group, though analysts differ over whether he belonged to the second or third tier of the Al Qaida leadership.

Just three months ago he appeared with Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Al Zawahri, in a video circulated to announce the merger of Al Qaida and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which had been fighting alongside the Taliban and Al Qaida in Afghanistan for several years.

Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al Qaida, said Libi represented a bridge between Al Qaida and Libyan, Algerian, Uzbek and Turkmen Islamist militant groups.

"We have seen that he was also instrumental in training a number of Pakistani radicals who are living in the west, who came to North Waziristan for training," Gunaratna said.

Main function

Gunaratna said though Libi was a seasoned fighter, it was doubtful he was running operations as his main function seemed to be training.

Few people outside the intelligence community are familiar with any names in Al Qaida beyond Bin Laden and Zawahri.

There's been no actionable intelligence on either for a long time. The US launched a missile strike in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region in January 2006 in the hope of killing Zawahri. It killed some local militants and their families.

A Western official described Libi as one of the top six leaders in Al Qaida's global structure and a top military commander. Security analysts at the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London called Al Libi's death the most important elimination of an Al Qaida leader since capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad because of his links with jihadis elsewhere and ability to organise attacks.

Mohammad is the man said to have been the real brains behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. He was caught in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in March 2003.

Third ring

Mahmood Shah, former security chief in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas, said Al Libi was running just one of four Al Qaida groups operating in North Waziristan.

"Al Qaida have rings ... he would belong to the third ring and there would be many people in the third ring," said Shah.

Two of Zawahri's fellow Egyptians were in charge of running operations in the region, according to Gunaratna.

One of them was Obaidah Al Masri, who according to a Pakistani newspaper, could have been targetted along with Al Libi in the attack.

Veteran jihadi Shaikh Saiid Al Masri is in charge of operations in Afghanistan, and sits on Al Qaida's 10-man shura, or consultative council, Gunaratna said.