Al Qaeda Taliban coordinator feels the Hellfire

AFP:

A major Arab Al-Qaeda operative was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, a senior security official told AFP Wednesday.

Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior member of Osama bin Laden's terror network.

They said US intelligence officials had identified him as the main link between Al-Qaeda's senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region with Afghanistan.

"He was the man coordinating between Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders on this side of the border, and also involved in recruiting and training fighters," an Islamabad-based senior security official told AFP.

Sources in the Taliban said al-Saudi was also a member of Taliban's supreme council, or Shura, under its fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar when it moved from Afghanistan to the Pakistani side of the border about a year ago.

"He was closely linked to Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri," a Taliban source added.

Following the strike, al-Zawahiri warned US president-elect Barack Obama against sending more troops to Afghanistan saying that US policy was "doomed to failure" in an Internet audio message.

A security official said the US missile strike was carried out on intelligence that al-Saudi was in a house belonging to a tribesman in the Bannu district, which borders restive North Waziristan.

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It is clear that US intelligence in the area appears to be improving and it has moved al Qaeda out of its comfort zones and pushed them into areas deeper into Pakistan where it may not have as many allies. If this guy was close to Zawahiri it is very possible that the latest message from al Qaeda's number two may have led the US to his lair.

The hit also puts the lie to Zawahiri's latest bravado. His suggestion that the US is losing in Iraq and Afghanistan is pretty laughable coming from a guy who has to slip his message out on a recorder and can't call a press briefing.