Al Qaeda's man in Afghanistan talks

BBC:

The man believed to be al-Qaeda's commander of operations in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, has given a rare television interview.

He confirmed to the Pakistani TV station Geo that al-Qaeda carried out the June bombing of the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Geo say the interview was carried out in the Afghan province of Khost.

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The 53-year-old Egyptian, wearing a commando jacket, a white turban and dyed beard, spoke to the camera in Arabic, holding a Geo microphone in hand.

He confirmed that an al-Qaeda operative carried out the 2 June suicide attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad.

"We are proud of that attack, and I had congratulated my colleagues for conducting it successfully," he said.

"We had chosen a time for the attack when there would be no innocent Muslims around," he added. All of the eight people who died in the attack were reported to have been Muslims.

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Mustafa Abu al-Yazid is understood to be the operational commander of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan - a position which the Western intelligence community has long viewed as pivotal to the planning and execution of militant attacks around the world.

He is also reported to have managed the finances for the 11 September, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

He told the Geo interviewer that al-Qaeda was "properly involved" in those attacks, as well as the 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid also denounced the Pakistani government for fighting Islamic militants, justified suicide attacks and predicted victory for Taleban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.

He is believed to be an al-Qaeda veteran who was jailed in Egypt in 1982 in connection with the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

He is thought to have climbed to the number three position in al-Qaeda about a year ago when his predecessor, Abu Ubaida al-Masri, died of hepatitis in Pakistan.

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Being the number three man for al Qaeda may be the most dangerous job in the world. Several have been killed or captured. His interview does suggest that al Qaeda has now turned its focus on Afghanistan after having lost in Iraq. His interview in Khost makes you wonder how many other la Qaeda operatives are in Khost.

One of the reasons so many al Qaeda are moving into Afghanistan is the losses incurred by the Taliban in the last few years. Most of the fighters now are either al Qaeda or Pakistan Taliban dupes.

Hopefully the UAV traffic will pick up over Khost in hopes of tracking this guy down.