Major al-Qaida figure killed

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A missile from a remotely piloted Predator struck a suspected terrorist safehouse in Pakistan and killed a top al-Qaida commander believed responsible for a brazen bomb attack during a visit last year by Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The strike by an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle that killed Abu Laith al-Libi was conducted Monday night or early Tuesday, said the official, who would neither confirm nor deny that the United States carried it out.

The attack was against a facility in Pakistan's north Waziristan region, the lawless tribal area bordering Afghanistan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

The killing of such a major al-Qaida figure is expected to embarrass Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who repeatedly has said he would not sanction U.S. military action against al-Qaida members believed to be regrouping in the wild borderlands near Afghanistan.

An estimated 12 people were killed in the strike, including Arabs, Turkeman from central Asia and local Taliban members, according to an intelligence official in the area who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said the bodies of those killed were badly mangled by the force of the explosion and it was difficult to identify them.

The Predator is an unmanned aircraft developed by the Air Force and the CIA, that can be armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles.

Most of the nation's Predator fleet is based at Creech Air Force Base at Indian Springs, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where the capability exists to carry out combat operations by pilots and sensor operators who control the aircraft via satellite link.

In these so-called "remote-split" operations, the aircraft can be launched from bases thousands of miles away in Southwest Asia and control of the aircraft is "handed off" to pilots in ground stations in Southern Nevada or elsewhere in the United States.

Predator pilots and sensor operators at Nellis Air Force Base used this technique on Dec. 13, 2003, to help U.S. ground troops capture ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was hiding in a hole in the ground 7,500 miles away near Tikrit, Iraq.

In October, Air Force officials confirmed that the Predator's big brother, the MQ-9 Reaper, from the 42nd Attack Squadron at Creech, had been deployed to Afghanistan and was ready for action. In addition to Hellfire missiles, the Reaper carries 3,000 pounds of munitions including laser-guided bombs.

On Thursday, however, officials at the Coalition Press Information Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, and at Creech and Central Command Air Forces at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., did not respond to e-mails asking whether the Reaper or Predators were used in the strike on al-Libi.

The CIA first used the remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft as a strike plane in November 2002 against six alleged al-Qaida members traveling in a vehicle in Yemen.

In January 2006, Ayman Al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's second-in-command, was the target of a missiles alleged to have been fired from a CIA Predator drone near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The terror leader was not at the site, but officials said four key al-Qaida operatives were killed.

The U.S. officials said that al-Libi, whose name means "the Libyan" in Arabic, probably was behind the February 2007 bombing at the U.S. base at Bagram in Afghanistan during a visit by Cheney.

The attack killed 23 people but Cheney was deep inside the sprawling base and was not injured.

The bombing added to the impression that Western forces and the shaky government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai are vulnerable to assault by Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Terrorism experts said al-Libi's death was a significant setback for al-Qaida because of his extensive ties to the Taliban, but they said the terror network probably would regroup and replace him.

"Al-Libi has been waging jihad for more than 10 years and it will be a blow to both al-Qaida and the Taliban, but not in a way that will lead to the downfall of those organizations," said Eric Rosenbach, terror expert and executive director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School.

Pakistani officials denied any knowledge of al-Libi's death. A Web site that frequently carries announcements from militant groups said al-Libi had been "martyred with a group of his brothers in the land of Muslim Pakistan" but gave no further details.

Residents near the Pakistani town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan said they could hear U.S. Predator drones flying in the area shortly before the explosion, which destroyed the compound.

The Pakistani newspaper Dawn said the victims were buried in a local cemetery.

Rumors spread Thursday in the border area that al-Libi or his deputy died in the missile strike. But Pakistan's Interior Ministry spokesman, Javed Iqbal Cheema, insisted authorities had "no information" indicating al-Libi was dead.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he did not "have anything definitive" to say on reports of al-Libi's death.

The Libyan-born al-Libi was among the most high-profile figures in al-Qaida after its leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy al-Zawahri.

Al-Libi also led an al-Qaida training camp and appeared in a number of al-Qaida Internet videos.

In the spring of 2007, al-Qaida's media wing, Al-Sahab, released a video interview with a bearded man identified as al-Libi. In it, he accuses Shiite Muslims of fighting alongside U.S. forces in Iraq, and claimed that mujahedeen would crush foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Al-Libi also led an al-Qaida training camp and appeared in a number of al-Qaida Internet videos.

He was known to maintain close ties with tribes living on the Pakistani side of the mountainous border, where U.S. officials believe al-Qaida has been regrouping.

"Al-Libi's death is a significant blow to al-Qaida the organization because he is one of the few people left in the organization who has a historical track record," said Farhana Ali, terror expert at the RAND corporation.

But, she added, "al-Qaida's strength is that it knows how to secure membership and recruitment, and because the movement will continue, al-Libi will be replaced."

A Pakistani intelligence official said that al-Libi was based near Mir Ali until late 2003 when he moved back into Afghanistan to take charge of al-Qaida operations on both sides of the border area. But he retained links with North Waziristan, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

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.

Rosenbach said militants who rise to No. 3 al-Qaida positions, such as al-Libi, are often in charge of planning operations, exposing them to capture or death. Others he named included Mohammed Atef, who was killed, and Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who was captured.

"It has to be one of the most dangerous jobs on earth. They generally don't last longer than a year -- mostly because the al-Qaida chief of operations has a large 'signature' resulting from planning operations," he said. "Our intelligence has done an excellent job in tracking them down."

Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report.