Al Qaeda leader targeted in missile strike

ABC News:

Pakistani intelligence sources say they believe a "high-value" al Qaeda target was killed in a missile strike yesterday in the country's tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

U.S. officials said there was no indication that the target was Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al Zawahri, but one senior official told ABCNews.com the strike was aimed at one particular figure.

"We don't know whether we got him yet, we are sorting through it," the official said, indicating the intended target was a top leader of the terror group.

The official also ruled out as a target American al Qaeda Adam Gadahn, who appeared recently in a propaganda videotape.

"Gadahn may be recognizable to all of you, but he is really not that high up on the food chain in al Qaeda and not that important," the official said.

...

I guess Gadahn is not worth the price of a Hellfire missile. If the target was not al Qaeda's number one or number two man, then it is possible that it was at the most dangerous job in the world, their number three man, of whom there have been many since 2001. The job usually requires contacts with outsiders including jihadis which means we are like to hear about those contacts.