A US drone hunting al-Qaeda targets has killed one of the men tipped to replace its dead leader Osama bin Laden.
Senior commander Ilyas Kashmiri, 47, is said to have been planning a Mumbai-style attack in Europe.
He was tracked down in South Waziristan, Pakistan, after his name appeared in a “treasure trove” of files the CIA seized after bin Laden was shot dead last month.
A fax from Kashmiri’s Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami militant group said yesterday that he was a “martyr” and vowed revenge on the US.
Ilyas Kashmiri, 8 militants killed in US drone attack
[June 5, 2011]
ISLAMABAD A US drone killed a senior Al Qaeda figure in South Waziristan after a tip-off from local intelligence, an intelligence official said on Saturday.
The elimination of Ilyas Kashmiri appeared to be another coup for the US after the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden on May 2.
“Nine militants were killed in last night’s drone strike,” a security official in Peshawar said.
“We are sure that he (Kashmiri) has been killed. Now we are trying to retrieve the bodies. We want to get photographs of the bodies,” said the intelligence official.
Kashmiri was wrongly reported to have been killed in a September 2009 strike by a US drone.
A local television station quoted the group Kashmiri headed, Harkatul Jihad Islami (HuJI) which is allied to Al Qaeda, as saying the latest report was true.
“We confirm that our Amir (leader) and commander in chief, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, was martyred in a US drone strike on June 3, 2011,” Abu Hanzla Kashir, who identified himself as a HUJI spokesman, said in a statement faxed to the station.
“God willing ... America will very soon see our full revenge. Our only target is America.”
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
Kashmiri and other militants were with an Afghan Taliban member involved in liaison with the Pakistani Taliban when the drone missile struck, said the intelligence official.
“All those killed were Kashmiri’s fighters but informers told us that the dead bodies were badly mutilated and that it was not possible to recognise any of them,” the official added.
He said they were in a house in South Waziristan that was believed to be the headquarters of Kashmiri’s group, which has been described as an operational wing of Al Qaeda.
“We were closing in on him and he switched off his satellite phone and cellphone and he wanted to cross the border to Afghanistan to find a hiding place,” the official added. “It was a tipoff by us since we were closely monitoring his movements.”
Five of his close allies were also killed in the attack by a pilotless drone aircraft, along with three other militants, intelligence officials said.
Kashmiri, 47, was on a list which Washington gave Islamabad of senior militants it wanted killed or captured, said another official.
He was considered one of the most feared operational commanders of the network and has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks on western targets.
The US Department of State has labelled Kashmiri a ‘specially designated global terrorist’ and had put out a $5 million reward, the maximum for any most-wanted target, for any information that might help locate him.
Key al Qaeda man said killed in Pakistan drone strike
Ilyas Kashmiri speaks during a news conference in Islamabad in this July 11, 2001 file photo. Credit: Reuters/Mian Khursheed/Files
By Michael Georgy and Augustine Anthony ISLAMABAD | Sat Jun 4, 2011 5:42pm EDT
(Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike killed a senior al Qaeda figure in northwest Pakistan after a tipoff from local intelligence, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Saturday.
But a U.S. National Security official in Washington said he could not confirm the report and warned it could be premature.
The elimination of Ilyas Kashmiri, regarded as one of the most dangerous militants in the world, would be another coup for the United States after American special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a garrison town close to Islamabad on May 2.
More cooperation from Islamabad could help repair ties with ally Washington, badly damaged when it was discovered that bin Laden had apparently been living in Pakistan for years.
One Pakistani intelligence official in Islamabad and three in the northwest said Kashmiri had been killed.
"We are sure that he (Kashmiri) has been killed. Now we are trying to retrieve the bodies. We want to get photographs of the bodies," said the Pakistani intelligence official in Islamabad.
Kashmiri was wrongly reported to have been killed in a September 2009 strike by a U.S. drone. It is difficult or impossible to get confirmation of the identities of those killed in drone strikes because they take place in remote areas not accessible to foreign journalists.
A Pakistani television station quoted the group Kashmiri headed, Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) which is allied to al Qaeda, as saying the latest report was true.
"We confirm that our Amir (leader) and commander in chief, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, was martyred in an American drone strike on June 3, 2011, at 11:15 p.m.," Abu Hanzla Kashir, who identified himself as a HUJI spokesman, said in a statement faxed to the station.
"God willing ... America will very soon see our full revenge. Our only target is America."
The U.S. National Security official expressed doubts about the statement. Its authenticity could not be independently verified. Britain's Channel 4 News said the death had been confirmed by a senior HUJI commander and close aide of Kashmiri.
Kashmiri, said to be a former Pakistani military officer, and other militants were with an Afghan Taliban member involved in liaison with the Pakistani Taliban when the drone missile struck, said the intelligence official.
He said they were in a house in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, that was believed to be the HUJI headquarters of Kashmiri's group, which has been described as an operational wing of al Qaeda.
"We were closing in on him and he switched off his satellite phone and cellphone and he wanted to cross the border to Afghanistan to find a hiding place," the Islamabad official added. "It was a tipoff by us since we were closely monitoring his movements."
Five of his close allies were killed in the attack by a pilotless drone aircraft, intelligence officials said.
U.S. ASKED PAKISTAN TO GO AFTER KASHMIRI
The killing of bin Laden aroused international suspicions that Pakistani authorities had been complicit in hiding him, and led to domestic criticism of them for failing to detect or stop the U.S. team that killed him.
U.S. scepticism of claims of Kashmiri's demise may be further evidence of deep distrust between Pakistani and U.S. intelligence services public pledges by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other American officials that relations had improved.
Kashmiri was on a list which Washington gave Pakistan of militants it wanted killed or captured, a Pakistani official said.
Drone strikes have increased under the Obama administration, sometimes killing civilians and fuelling anti-American sentiment.
While Pakistani leaders publicly criticize the attacks, analysts say killing high-value targets would not be possible without Pakistani intelligence.
Washington reiterated its call on Pakistan to crack down harder on militancy after it was discovered that bin Laden had been living in the country.
The U.S. Department of State has labeled Kashmiri a "specially designated global terrorist." He has been linked to attacks including the 2008 rampage through the Indian city of Mumbai which killed 166 people.
The Pakistani media has speculated that Kashmiri was the mastermind of an attack on the PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi last month which humiliated the Pakistani military.
(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Hafiz Wazir in South Waziristan, Faisal Aziz in Karachi, Mark Hosenball and Myra MacDonald in London; writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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