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| Al-Qaeda commander killed in US strike |
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Friday, September 19, 2008
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Three out of seven people killed in Wednesday’s US drone attack on Baghar village of South Waziristan Agency included two Arabs, one of them a senior al-Qaeda commander, and one hailing from the Punjab.
Sources close to the tribal militants told this scribe that the two Arabs were identified as Jiran, the al-Qaeda commander, and Sabri while the name of the militant commander from the Punjab could not be ascertained.
A senior militant commander, who wished not to be named, said all the three men were sitting in a vehicle parked in front of a mud-built house in Baghar village near Angoor Adda when two US drones fired four Hellfire missiles, killing them and four others staying in the house.
He said Jiran was appointed as al-Qaeda’s operational commander for a particular region in Afghanistan when another senior al-Qaeda commander Abu Imam died in fighting with the US forces near Bagram in Afghanistan three months ago.
“Jiran was a senior operational commander and was mostly living in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He used to change his locations due to continuous surveillance by the US spy planes on the border villages,” said the tribal militant commander.
He suspected it was possible that some Afghan nomads might have spied on the militants living in Baghar village.
“No non-local person can reach that remote village except these nomads who often bring herds of sheep for grazing to the area,” he said, adding that in the past few days three US spies were killed after they admitted that American forces in Afghanistan had sent them to spy on Taliban and their positions.
Despite repeated protests lodged by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani over non-stop US air strikes on Pakistani tribal villages, two American spy planes again entered South Waziristan on Thursday evening and were seen flying over the area till the filing of this report.
Tribal sources from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, reported that two US drones entered there on Thursday evening and were seen flying over Wana, Azam Warsak, Dabkot, Birmal and other adjoining villages.
“Both the planes are continuously flying over Wana and adjoining villages which has again created panic among the tribesmen. Whenever two US planes come here, they definitely carry out strikes,” said a local tribesman.
Ahmadzai Wazir tribesmen, who have raised a tribal Lashkar to defend their frontiers against the foreign forces, were critical over the alleged silence of the Pakistani security forces based in old Sra Kanda fort, about a kilometre from the Baghar village, on US drones flying inside the Pakistani territory.
Earlier reports pouring in from Miramshah said that a US spy plane entered the North Waziristan Agency from adjoining Afghanistan and continued flying over Miramshah, Danday Darpakhel, Hamzoni, Dattakhel, Spinwam, Mirali, Khushali Torikhel and other tribal villages.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
