Al-Qaida’s No. 3 reportedly killed
Presence in Pakistan lends credence to claims of alliance with Taliban
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A leading al-Qaida commander, reputed to be No. 3 in the terrorist group, is thought to have been killed after several days of fierce fighting in Pakistan’s northwest fringe, a clash that is pushing the country toward war with the extremists.
Abu Saeed al-Masri, identified in local news reports as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, is al-Qaida’s commander in Afghanistan as well as its financial expert. His death, if confirmed, would be a significant blow to the terrorist group.
Pakistan’s Taliban movement, which is allied with al-Qaida, on Tuesday blew up a bus that was carrying military personnel just outside Peshawar, the capital of the troubled North-West Frontier Province. The powerful blast, thought to come from a roadside bomb, claimed 14 lives, including civilian passers-by. It blew a crater in the road some 10 feet wide.
Pakistan’s tribal territory, which borders Afghanistan and large tracts of its North-West Frontier Province, is convulsed in violence, as the country’s security forces have decided to take on militant bases in some parts of the area.
Fighting in Bajaur, part of the tribal zone, resulted in the death of al-Yazid, according to local news reports. Pakistani security officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the press, said they believed that he’d been killed but that they hadn’t seen the body. U.S. officials in Washington weren’t immediately able to verify the death.
Abu Khabab al-Masri, an al-Qaida chemical and biological-weapons expert, was killed last month in a U.S. airstrike in South Waziristan, another part of Pakistan’s tribal territory. The presence of al-Yazid and him in Pakistan will fuel claims that not only is the Taliban insurrection in Afghanistan being directed from Pakistani territory but also that al-Qaida is using the country as a worldwide base.
Al-Yazid is a founding member of al-Qaida and has been a trusted lieutenant of Osama bin Laden since the late 1980s. He has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Danish Embassy in Islamabad earlier this year. He also has been linked to the assassination in December of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Al-Yazid, an Egyptian, served time in jail with al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.
Some consider al-Yazid al-Qaida’s third most senior figure. He has risen through the ranks as other leaders have been killed. The Sept. 11 commission described al-Yazid as the network’s “chief financial manager,” and he may have wired money to the 9-11 hijackers.