Pakistani Militant Killed in Attack
The New York Times reports:
One of Pakistan’s most wanted militant commanders, Ilyas Kashmiri, has been killed in an American drone strike in the tribal territory of South Waziristan, residents and a militant member in the area said Saturday. Officials said they were also aware of the reports but could not confirm his death.
Mr. Kashmiri was considered one of the most dangerous and highly trained Pakistani militants, allied with Al Qaeda. A former member of Pakistan’s special forces, the Special Services Group, Mr. Kashmiri was suspected of being behind several attacks, including the May 22 battle at the Mehran naval base in the southern port city of Karachi. He has also been implicated in the terrorist attack on Mumbai, India, in 2008, in which 163 people were killed, including some American citizens.
He was killed Friday in a strike on a compound in Gwakhwa, not far from Wana, the main town of South Waziristan. He had recently returned to South Waziristan from another part of the tribal areas, the BBC reported.
The BBC first reported the news and said nine people were killed in the strike about 10 miles outside Wana. There was a second strike on Friday, reported in Karikot in the same region.
A known Taliban militant in Wana contacted by telephone confirmed that Mr. Kashmiri was killed. An intelligence official in Islamabad said he had not received any independent confirmation of the report.
Mr. Kashmiri’s death has been previously misreported. Officials claimed he was killed in a drone strike in September 2009, but he emerged later unharmed.
Mr. Kashmiri’s death will be welcomed by both American and Pakistani intelligence agencies and will go some way to alleviating the strained relations between the two countries that have developed in recent months, in particular since the May 2 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Pakistan has accused the United States of pursuing its own agenda in Pakistan without coordinating with Pakistani security forces, running its own intelligence agents and conducting unilateral strikes that ride roughshod over Pakistan’s sovereignty.
