U.S. Reportedly Kills Al-Qaeda’s Second in Command With Drone Strike
- Posted on June 5, 2012 at 1:57pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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Abu Yahia Al-Libi, Al Qaeda's number two leader, was reportedly killed in a drone strike in Pakistan. (AP)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (The Blaze/AP) — A U.S. drone strike in northern Pakistan has killed al-Qaida’s second-in-command, American officials said Tuesday, the biggest success so far in the controversial military program and a significant setback to a terror network that has lost a string of top figures since the death of Osama bin Laden last year.
Abu Yahya al-Libi was considered a media-savvy, charismatic leader with religious credentials who escaped from an American prison in Afghanistan and was helping preside over the transformation of al-Qaida from a close-knit group into an ideological movement aimed at winning converts – and potential attackers – around the world.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called al-Libi’s death a “major blow” to the terror network.
Carney described al-Libi as an operational leader and a “general manager” of al-Qaida. He said al-Libi had a range of experience that will be hard for al-Qaida to replicate and brings the terror network closer to its ultimate demise than ever before.
Al-Libi was the latest in the dozen-plus senior commanders removed in the clandestine U.S. war against al-Qaida since Navy SEALs killed bin Laden.
A hero in militant circles for his 2005 escape from an American military prison in Afghanistan, al-Libi was elevated to al-Qaida’s No. 2 spot when Ayman al-Zawahri rose to replace bin Laden shortly after the terror leader was killed on May 2, 2011.
Carney would not confirm how he was killed, but an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said it was in a drone strike Monday morning. Pakistani officials had previously said that eight militants died in a drone strike in the Pakistani village of Khassu Khel in the North Waziristan tribal area.
Militants and residents in the area told Pakistani agents that al-Libi was in the house when it was hit, Pakistani intelligence officials said. They said the mud and brick house was destroyed in the attack. A vehicle used by al-Libi was destroyed during the strike, said one of the officials.
A local Taliban chief said earlier Monday that al-Libi was not present at the house, though his guard and driver were killed in the attack.
The intelligence officials also declined to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The Taliban chief spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by the Pakistani army.
The New York Times has more on the strike:
The drone strike occurred Monday in a small village outside Mir Ali, the capital of North Waziristan Province. At the time American officials confirmed that Mr. Libi had been the strike’s target, but could not confirm his conditions. Pakistanis living in the area of the strike reported that he had been either killed or seriously wounded, and that 15 other people had been killed.
Mr. Libi, who was believed to be in his late 40s, moved up to become Al Qaeda’s deputy, behind Ayman al-Zawahri, after an American commando raid killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011. He already had a high profile in the militant world: he escaped the American prison at Bagram, Afghanistan, in 2005, and went on to make a series of videos that established him as a leading voice calling for attacks on the United States — and as a charismatic focal point for a terrorist group that was widely seen as being in decline.
This isn’t the first time he has been reported killed in a drone strike, however. As the Times notes, he was reported killed in December 2009. That, however, turned out to be erroneous.
The White House maintains a list of terrorist targets to be killed or captured, compiled by the military and the CIA and ultimately approved by the president.
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program had set a $1 million reward for information leading to al-Libi, who had filmed numerous propaganda videos urging attacks on U.S. targets.
The U.S. has carried out a flurry of drone strikes recently – seven in less than two weeks – some of which appear to have been trying to target al-Libi. The al-Qaida deputy appeared to have been wounded in one of those strikes, although there were conflicting accounts as to which.
Pakistani intelligence officials said al-Libi had been slightly injured in a May 28 attack in a village near Khassu Khel, where he then moved. The Taliban chief said the strike that wounded al-Libi was two days earlier in a different village.
As al-Qaida’s de facto general manager, al-Libi was responsible for running the group’s day-to-day operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas and managed outreach to al-Qaida’s regional affiliates.
Al-Libi, an Islamic scholar, was captured in 2002 and held by U.S. forces at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan until he escaped in 2005 in an embarrassing security breach. Almost immediately after reuniting with his Taliban and al-Qaida brethren he began appearing in videos released by the terror group.
The Rewards for Justice program described al-Libi as using his “religious training to influence people and legitimize the actions of al-Qaida.”
In a 2009 profile of al-Libi in Foreign Policy magazine, terrorism expert Jarret Brachman described al-Libi as “media-savvy, ideologically extreme, and masterful at justifying savage acts of terrorism with esoteric religious arguments.”
Al-Libi was one of thousands of men from around the Muslim and Arab world who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s to battle the Soviet Union. According to Brachman, he later went to Mauritania for advanced religious studies that he then used in repeated videos and other al-Qaida outreach designed to attract followers and justify the group’s deadly tactics. He honed his outreach skills while working in Karachi as webmaster for a Taliban website, Brachman said.
The stepping up of drone strikes since late May follows a relative lull driven by tensions between Washington and Islamabad over American airstrikes last year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Pakistan seized the opportunity to renegotiate its relationship with the U.S. and demanded Washington stop drone strikes in the country – a demand the U.S. has ignored. The attacks are unpopular in Pakistan because many people believe they mostly kill civilians, an allegation disputed by the U.S.
Pakistan called Deputy U.S. Ambassador Richard Hoagland to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday to protest the drone strikes.
“He was informed that the drone strikes were unlawful, against international law and a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Members of the Pakistani government and military have supported the strikes in the past, but that cooperation has come under strain as the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated.
—
Dozier reported from Washington. Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Julie Pace in Washington and Sebastian Abbot in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.
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Comments (75)
Johnny Cocheroo
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 4:04pmSo – what is the end game here?
I don’t mind killing bad dudes and I suppose this guy is probably one of those. What I would really like to know is how long are we planning on doing this?
Drones, missiles, upkeep and personnel all cost money. That money is bankrupting our nation as we speak. Is there a better way to spend that money – not spending, border security, information gathering?
Report Post »spfoam1
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:29pmTaking out Muslim bad guys one at a time is like trying to kill the fire ants in Texas one at a time. They will not stop trying to kill us until we kill so many of them that they can’t play the game anymore. We won’t do that until they use a nuke or some other nasty weapon and kill a large number of us first. Until then, we try to change their minds by picking off the leaders as we find them. We can’t seem to identify the enemy as Islam itself, and the price we will pay for that political correctness is probably going to be in millions of lives.
Report Post »db321
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 6:41pmGood – let’s go after #1, #3, #4, #5, – - – - – - – #100,000,000. Then we will re-evaluate!
Report Post »Belwraith
Posted on June 6, 2012 at 12:09pm….but I thought POTUS said the war on terror is over??????????
Report Post »Passerby
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:46pmMore drones, please.
Report Post »Eric_The_Red_State
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:43pmThese people have nothing and they see us as having everything.
No wonder they are trying to kill us.
We should take the money we are spending on bullets and bombs and squash them like flies.
Report Post »Ha – didn’t see that one coming – did ya?
thegreatcarnac
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:14pmYeah….obama is good with drones. He even has plans to use them in the US. Many of us better start watching the skies. The little coward will use them to get rid of anyone who dislikes him.
Report Post »db321
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 9:22pmCome get me – I’m not a coward – I’m an American.
Report Post »Best_Patriot
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:06pmIf Bush had done this, you turkeys would be dancing in the streets.
Speaking of hypocrisy, why aren’t you tea bags thanking Obama for lowering the price of gas?
Beck listeners have no integrity.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:18pm…and if Bush had done this you would be screaming that the drone strikes are aiding recruitment efforts for Al Qaeda…just like you (and Barry) did about GITMO.
Report Post »tzion
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:22pmLowering the price of gas? It was lower before Obama and it would be lower even now if he hadn’t canceled the oil pipeline. If you want to give Obama credit for gas prices, fine. In his 4 years as president there has been a net increase in gas prices.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:28pmYour boy was against the use of drones before he was for it.Now he‘s using the drones on us but it’s all good it‘s to ’protect’ us,yeah right.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:31pmGas is twice the price it was when Bush left office you dolt!
Report Post »Mutiny
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 5:37pm@gonzo
So you think when one of our missiles hits a innocent child his father doesnt become a militant against us? I know if another country starts bombing us and one of my kids gets killed I will be one.
Report Post »Godfather.1
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:04pmDo Blaze computers not have a spell check function?
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:03pmWell thank goodness we didn’t capture him and waterboard him. It’s far more humane to blow him to smithereens. Who needs intelligence gathering anyway?
Report Post »Slowman101
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:59pmSpell much?
Report Post »pr0grammer
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:59pmWhat’s a Drone Strkie.
Spell check please.
Report Post »Best_Patriot
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:06pmhaha, this site has no editors and their spelling is consistent with that of the average tea bag.
Report Post »tzion
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:23pm@best patriot
Report Post »Funny, I’ve never seen a tea bag with any typos on the label.
TheLizard
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:55pmObama’s multi-billion dollar snuff film fetish:
Report Post »http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/06/04/white-house-insider-barack-obamas-high-tech-snuff-films/
saranda
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:07pmQuoting the Ulsterman blog? Could you get less credible than that?
Report Post »Laken
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:53pmThe White House Insider….says Obama is obsessed with the DRONES….scary stuff
the comments posted there should be read also….
http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/06/04/white-house-insider-barack-obamas-high-tech-snuff-films/
Report Post »shakedowncrews
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:53pmRumors from the Whitehouse have it that Obama watches the drone strikes like it’s snuff films, presidential pornography. I think he‘s so frustrated being Valerie Jarret’s little puppet he needs these kills to make himself feel powerful again.
Report Post »Jarret and Moochelle have emasculated him entirely…killing is the last masculine thing he can do, and he doesn’t even do it, he just gives the command.
AzThunder
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 9:02pmValerie Jarret has a tight hold on oblamers e-d-b-d balls
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:48pmWhat are we doing in Pakistan and what does Pakistan have to say about it?
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:00pmWhat are we doing in AfPak?
Trying to piss off enough of them to generate more attacks on US soild so we can stay at war forever.
(Seems like it, anyway)
Report Post »Johnny Cocheroo
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 4:24pmThe consensus here might not be as impressed if China were using drones over American soil to infiltrate our terrorist sleeper cells.
Wait until they figure out these things can be used to hand out speeding tickets or monitor you in your back yard to keep you from doing something…..illegal.
Report Post »starman70
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:42pmWhat’s a strkie?
Report Post »shakedowncrews
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:49pmthe same as an attcka
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:15pmSame as a fihgt but the ohter guy doesnt shot bak
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:34pmI hear the teachers union is going to strkie when Walker wins the recall.
Report Post »Landon410
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:38pm” #3 now you are going to be second in command”
“nah, I’ll stay at #3, promote #4 to #2″
dangerous life to be #2 against the US
Report Post »barber2
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:25pmIsn’t it amazing how that Left wing propaganda mouthpiece , The New York Times ( the leakiest newspaper in America ) gets all of their “insider” information ! Now how do you suppose they do this ?
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:01pmThey are multi-taskers? Thye can listen while they’re on their knees…
Report Post »Locked
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:18pm“U.S. REPORTEDLY KILLS AL-QAEDA’S SECOND IN COMMAND WITH DRONE STRKIE”
Maybe we’d have gotten him the first time if he used a strkie. It seemed to work this time!
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:12pmI retired from the Army in 06, we killed that guy twice back in the day. Is he some kind of zombie?
Report Post »rickc34
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:39pmQuick call the cdc. Yes he did die twice but Obama needed to take credit for tis so he dug him up and killed him again you know third times the charm
Report Post »shakedowncrews
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:51pmThe same way Obama killed UBL while golfing…
Socialist propaganda, nothing more.
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:02pmMichael Scheuer sayd OBL was dead in December of 2001. You know, head of the CIA unit in charge of watching OBL…?
Report Post »Worried Grammie
Posted on June 6, 2012 at 8:19amAnother one bites the dust – again – just how many times was Osama bin Laden reported to have died before “Obama got Osama”? And, who created Al Quaeda to begin with????? Oh, yeah, seems the Bush administration had a hand in that – with bin Laden/Osman and his family being such good friends with the Bushes. All we get in news reports are huge lies, with a small amount of truth!!! Even Fox News reported on bin Laden’s death in December of 2001 – how soon they forget and scrub their archives – thank God the American people are waking up to the fact that we have been fed lies for decades and not as many people “hang onto the words of newscasters”, but instead take the time to do some research. The media is as complicit in the fraud and corruption as are the politicians – both Republicans and Democrats!
Report Post »Mutiny
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:11pmI thought we had killed the number 2 guy already. Oh yeah every time we kill one another number two pops up. You see this process is never going to end. We have three choices here.
1. Continue as normal. Bomb other nations and kill suspected terrorists. This breeds more terrorists and rallies more to their cause while bankrupting us.
2. Exterminate all Muslims so another number 2 cannot pop up. This is morally wrong and will bankrupt us.
3. Stop bombing these people, pull out of their countries, quit sending them food, money, and aid, and the money saved could have us energy independent in 3 years. After that, we let them all kill each other and we save our nation.
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:03pm#3!!! #3!!!! GOOO BUMBER THREEEEEE!!!
(Which presidential candidate advocates this approach?)
Report Post »Mutiny
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 4:41pmRon Paul
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:11pmJust carpet bomb the whole country. Do a big cleaning in that rats nest.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:32pmBut what would we do without the poppy fields ?
Report Post »saranda
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:01pmBrilliant assessment. Pakistan with nuclear weapons poses no threat to its neighbours if your “carpet bombing” advice is taken.
Report Post »uberconservative
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:11pmWell someone needs to proof read the the Title of this story! Unbelievable……….
Report Post »PETTYDRAMA
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:34pmMost of Beck’s staff does not have a formal college education. Beck himself barely graduated highschool. Therefore, you should not expect to read a grammatically coherent story too often on this site.
Report Post »GrumpyCat
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:14pmThere are more typos here than in other places.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:10pmI’m waiting for Obama to go live nationwide in his Navy Seals gear and take credit once more.
Then he’ll get the best surgical team from Johns-Hopkins to fly over and remove a splinter from the seat of his pants.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:07pmDrones are the best way to kill these pigs,there’s no chance of loss of life on our side so make boom boom all you want,just stop using them here on us.
Report Post »soybomb315
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:13pmno problem with that. but it is alarming how every domestic bureaucracy in this country is loading up on drones (from local cops to EPA).
I am willing to bet the next war, and possibly WW3 is started cuz of drones. Do I need to mention that drones are the perfect false flag attack mechanism?
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:19pmThey‘re a double edged sword that’s for sure and it’s chilling what an oppressive government can do with drones on us.
Report Post »Mutiny
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:30pmYeah I have no problem killing people we are at war with with drones. I believe at war we use everything. We arent at war anymore. Pull our troops home.
The problem we have here is this is never going to end. Number 2 guys are going to keep popping up. We keep flying in other nations which is causes more tension. For every 10 of these guys we kill I am sure an innocent is kill also if not more. That breeds more hate towards us and continues the never ending circle.
I am convinced these attacks are just used to feed the “neocons” red meat to continue the funding for wars on people that can do nothing to us. The globalists are using the left and right of our country to bankrupt us because we are the only real threat to a global government. Once we are bankrupt we wont have a choice.
Report Post »shakedowncrews
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:54pmDrone strikes: coming soon to the heartland of America.
Report Post »soybomb315
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:05pm“Al-Libi, a hero in militant circles for his 2005 escape from an American military prison in Afghanistan, was elevated to al-Qaida’s No. 2 spot when Ayman al-Zawahri rose to replace the slain bin Laden.”
I guess 2nd in command isnt as important as it used to be
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 2:01pmGreat! Send another who lived by the sword to the grave.
Report Post »Texas Chris
Posted on June 5, 2012 at 3:05pmYou do understand that the US is currently living “by the sword?”
Me, I stick to the “do unto others” mantra, and fall back to the “blessed are the peacemakers.”
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