Al-Qaeda’s second-in- command Abu Yahya al-Libi, on whose head the US had put a bounty of one million dollars, may have been killed in thelatest CIA drone strike in Pakistan’s lawless northwestern tribal region in which 15 militants had perished.
Libi, considered the most-prominent figure in al-Qaeda after Ayman al-Zawahiri, was the main target of the drone
strike yesterday at a militant compound near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan tribal region, and US officials were “optimistic” the Libyan had not survived.
If his death is confirmed, it will be a major setback to the terror network, whose chief Osama bin Laden was killed in a covert US raid in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May last year.
People are looking very closely to see whether he is still alive,” US officials were quoted by New York Times as
saying.
A senior Pakistani security source in Peshawar also said, “It looks like he has been killed,” the paper reported.
It quoted tribal sources in Mir Ali as saying that the Libyan ideologue was either killed or seriously wounded in the strike, which Pakistani officials said killed at least 15 militants.
US officials said that Libi, on whose head Washington had put a bounty of USD 1 million, was the target of the missile attack in North Waziristan, the third drone strike in as many days and the deadliest this year. “If his killing is confirmed, it could be a major blow to the core of al-Qaeda.”
CNN also reported that investigators were trying to determine whether Libi, who was in his late 40s, was injured
or killed in yesterday’s hit. Intelligence officials may find out his fate only from monitoring websites and chatter, it quoted as official as saying.
——————–PTI