Al Qaida believed killed in U.S. strike in Pakistan

by on January 19th, 2006

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/topstories_story_018165855.html

(CBS) PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Among the senior al Qaeda operators believed to have been in the village near the Afghanistan border where an airstrike hit last week is notorious Egyptian scientist Abu Khabab al-Masri, who had a $5 million American reward on his head, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

Also known as Midhat Mursi, he specialized in chemical and biological weapons and once conducted nerve gas tests on tethered dogs.

The strike also may have killed al Qaeda’s chief of operations for Afghanistan and Pakistan and another chief of operations for Afghanistan’s Konar province.

A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak to journalists, said authorities still did not know the names of the dead foreign militants but suspect one was a ranking al Qaeda figure.

“We have no names. We know one of them had value in al Qaeda. He had intelligence value in the network, but we are still checking his name,” said the official.

Etalkinghead Staff