Top al-Qaida commander reported dead

One of al-Qaida’s top commanders in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed in Pakistan according to a website used by militant groups.

“We congratulate the Islamic nation for the martyrdom of the sheik, the lion, Abu Laith al-Libi,” said a section of the website reserved for affiliated militant groups and not open to public posting.

“He was martyred with a group of his brothers in the land of Muslim Pakistan, though we are sad for his loss but he left a legacy that will inflame the enemy nation and religion,” added a statement that later appeared on the same website and included his picture.

Pakistani intelligence officials and local residents said that a missile hit a compound in a village about 2.5 miles outside Mir Ali in North Waziristan, Pakistan, late on Monday or early Tuesday, destroying the facility.

Residents said they were not allowed to approach the site of the blast and the Pakistan government and military said they did not know who fired the missile. Local officials said that foreigners were targeted in the attack.

One intelligence official in the area said a the bodies of those killed were badly mangled by the force of the explosion and it was difficult to identify those killed.

The official estimated 12 people were killed, including Arabs, Turkmen from central Asia and local Taliban members.

Mir Ali is the second biggest town in North Waziristan and has a strong presence of foreign militants, mostly Uzbeks with links to al Qaida who fled to Pakistan’s tribal regions after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

A Pakistani intelligence official said that al-Libi was based until late 2003 in the North Waziristan village of Norak, about five miles outside Mir Ali, where he had several compounds.

Two top officials of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said they could not confirm al-Libi’s death and were still trying to gather details on the missile strike.

A knowledgeable Western official said that “it appears at this point that Al-Libi has met his demise,” but declined to talk about the circumstances. “It was a major success in taking one of the top terrorists in the world off the street,” the official said. He added that the death occurred “within the last few days.”

Al-Libi was an al-Qaida training camp leader who has appeared in many internet videos and who the US says was probably behind last February’s bombing at the US base at Bagram during a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney that killed 23 people.

He was listed among the 12 most-wanted men the US offered a $200,000 (€134,439) reward for.