An Al Qaeda figure killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan last week is believed to have been an Algerian allegedly involved in training militants and plotting attacks against the West, officials said Friday.There is more.
The Algerian, known by the nickname Abu Sulayman Jazairi, apparently died May 14 in the strike that killed as many as 14 people and destroyed a compound near the village of Damadola, an Al Qaeda stronghold in northwestern Pakistan, officials said. A knowledgeable U.S. official and a senior European anti-terrorism official said Jazairi was thought to be dead.
U.S. anti-terrorism forces are targeting front-line planners in Pakistani hide-outs, and Jazairi would be another in a series of recent losses for the Al Qaeda leadership, the two officials said.
"He was a significant person within the Al Qaeda ranks," said the senior European official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. "Not in the top five, but he's up there. The suspicion is he was one of those individuals involved in training and targeting Western interests. There is uncorroborated intelligence that he was involved in plots against Europe."
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Jazairi was an explosives expert and "important terrorist trainer," the U.S. official said.
"When it comes to training, this individual was an important figure," the official said. "People like him are vital to terrorist plots. That doesn't mean he can't be replaced. But when Al Qaeda loses someone with his experience, it matters."
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These strikes are at the infrastructure of al Qaeda's ability to make terrorist attacks. by hitting operational leadership. they are losing not only experience, but making themselves more vulnerable to infiltration as they try to fill their depleted ranks. Replacements will also be less likely to have the same skils making it more likely that future attacks will fail.
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