ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike killed a senior al Qaeda figure in Pakistan after a tipoff from local intelligence, a Pakistani intelligence official said yesterday.
The elimination of Ilyas Kashmiri, regarded as one of the most dangerous militants in the world, appeared to be another coup for the United States, after American special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a garrison town close to Islamabad on May 2.
Islamabad’s cooperation in the killing could help repair ties with Washington, badly damaged when it was discovered that bin Laden had apparently been living in Pakistan for years.
“We are sure that he (Kashmiri) has been killed. Now we are trying to retrieve the bodies. We want to get photographs of the bodies,” said the Pakistani intelligence official.
Kashmiri was wrongly reported to have been killed in a September 2009 strike by a U.S. drone.
A Pakistani television station quoted the group Kashmiri headed, Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) which is allied to al Qaeda, as saying the latest report was true.
“We confirm that our Amir (leader) and commander-in-chief, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, was martyred in an American drone strike on June 3, 2011, at 11:15 p.m.,” Abu Hanzla Kashir, who identified himself as a HUJI spokesman, said in a statement faxed to the station.
“God willing … America will very soon see our full revenge. Our only target is America.”
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
Kashmiri’s death is good news for Pakistan, which has failed to subdue militants seeking to topple its unpopular government despite a series of army offensives against their strongholds.
“It will be a very big blow to militants and Pakistan will be a major beneficiary, because he was behind attacks on Pakistani defense and military installations,” said retired Brigadier, Asad Munir, a former Pakistani intelligence officer.
Kashmiri, said to be a former Pakistani military officer, and other militants were with an Afghan Taliban member involved in liaison with the Pakistani Taliban when the drone missile struck, said the intelligence official.
He said they were in a house in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, that was believed to be the headquarters of Kashmiri’s group, which has been described as an operational wing of al Qaeda.
“We were closing in on him, and he switched off his satellite phone and cellphone and he wanted to cross the border to Afghanistan to find a hiding place,” the official added. “It was a tipoff by us since we were closely monitoring his movements.”
Five of his close allies were also killed in the attack by a pilotless drone aircraft, along with two other militants, intelligence officials said.