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Rabia death 'blow for al-Qaeda'
04/12/2005 14:46 - (SA)
Islamabad - The death of one of al-Qaeda's top commanders is a "big blow" for Osama bin Laden's terror network, Pakistan's interior minister said Sunday.
Officials said on Saturday that the death of Hamza Rabia, believed responsible for planning overseas strikes, had been confirmed by DNA tests after an explosion last week in one of Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
"He was a high-profile commander in the network," interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told The Associated Press. "Naturally any person killed in their hierarchy is a big blow for them."
However, neither Sherpao nor top army spokesperson Major General Shaukat Sultan would confirm reports that Rabia was killed by missiles launched from pilotless US airplanes.
"We have no such information," Sultan said.
Rabia, a key associate of al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri, died on Thursday in an explosion in the North Waziristan tribal area, information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Saturday.
Two US counterterrorism officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitivity, said Rabia was believed to be an Egyptian and head of al-Qaeda's foreign operations, possibly as senior as the No. 3 in the terrorist group, which puts him at a level just below bin Laden and al-Zawahri.
Rabia filled the vacuum created this year by the capture of the previous operations chief, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the two US officials said.
As head of operations, Rabia would have been responsible for training, recruiting, networking and, most importantly, planning international terrorist activities outside the Afghan-Pakistan region.
One of the officials said Rabia also may have been involved in operations outside the region.
He had a wide array of jihadist contacts, the other official said, and was believed to be trying to reinvigorate al-Qaeda's operations.
The circumstances of Rabia's death were unclear.
The Dawn newspaper, citing sources it did not identify, reported Saturday that the attack on a mud-walled home near Miran Shah may have been launched from two pilotless planes. It said Rabia's body had been retrieved by associates from outside Pakistan.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the missile attack triggered a huge explosion in a stockpile of bomb-making materials, grenades and other munitions.
Other Pakistani intelligence officials, also not identifying themselves for the same reason, said US assistance played a critical role in tracking down Rabia and "eliminating the threat" that he posed.
Earlier, a top government administrator, Syed Zaheerul Islam, said Rabia died in an explosion while making bombs at a home near Miran Shah. Islam said the blast also killed four other people, including two local residents, and left two others injured, who have not been identified.
Miran Shah is a strategic tribal region where al-Qaeda militants are believed to be hiding and where Pakistani forces have launched several operations against them.
Assailants fired at least four rockets Saturday night at the town of Mir Ali, near where Rabia died, an intelligence official said Sunday on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of his job. One hit a power line, disrupting electricity to several villages, while the other three landed near an army base but no one was hurt, he said.
Authorities blame Islamic militants for rocket attacks and roadside bombings targeting security forces in North Waziristan.
Officials have said they do not know the whereabouts of al-Zawahri or bin Laden.
- AP
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