Pakistani Military Sources Say Zawahiri May Be Dead

Today, according to Pakistani military sources, U.S. aircraft attacked a compound known to be frequented by high level al Qaeda operatives. Pakistani officials tell ABC News that al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, may have been among them.

U.S. intelligence for the last few days indicated that Zawahiri might be in the location or about to arrive, although there is still no confirmation from U.S. officials that he was among the victims.

Villagers described seeing an unmanned plane circling the area for the last few days and then bombs falling in the early morning darkness. Pakistani officials tell ABC News that the bodies of the five suspected al Qaeda figures will be recovered at first light in Pakistan, but it will still take a day or two for any kind of positive identification. U.S. officials in Washington did not provide a comment.

http://abcnews.go.com/...

We have heard about Bin Laden believed to be dead and Zarqawi may be dead stories every couple months over the years. It was only matter of time before it happened to Zawahiri.

That said I am willing to bet ISI knows if he is dead or not.

•  How many times has he died now? n/t

  by 3waygeek on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:14:55 PM PDT

•  Number Two

  How many #2's can there be? It's a fucking parody at this point.

  by Kudos on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:16:57 PM PDT

  •  He's #2 like Texas Football is #2

    Al-Zawahiri is truly running the show and has been for a long time. Check out this New Yorker profile "The Man Behind Bin Laden" if you are not familiar with his backround.

    by joejoejoe on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:22:53 PM PDT

•  Well, let's hope

  we've actually nailed the fucker this time rather than it just being a rumour.  If we can't catch these people and bring them to trial, which apparently we can't, I'll take 'em smeared across a compound somewhere.

  Kudos to joejoejoe for quickly deleting his diary, which was up only seconds after this one.

  by Loquatrix on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:16:59 PM PDT

•  What, again?

  This guy's more resilient than Rasputin.

  by bumblebums on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:17:36 PM PDT

•  UAV

  The details are sketchy but this would be big news. I wonder if the villagers hear UAVs for days why that bit of intelligence wouldn't make it to al-Qaeda. Maybe they are more on the run than I imagined?

  Great news if this story is true - but Pakistan often gets these matters wrong in the initial releases. And the details are harsh - perhaps a dozen women and children among the dead. But war is all hell and unlike Iraq we have cause for making War on Al-Qaeda.

  by joejoejoe on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:18:54 PM PDT

  •  The Iraqi insurgents in kick out al-Qaeda

    if Iraq doesn't fall into an endless civil war. If it does, Zarqawi will have a far better long term base then Bin Laden ever had had.

    by ECH on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:22:50 PM PDT

    •  Al-Zawahiri

      I'm not thinking of Iraq tonight, just 9/11. Zawahiri is very much a killer. I don't know the consequences of getting him or not - but killing those that would kill you how wars are fought. And we are justly fighting a (covert) war on Al-Qaeda.

      Iraq is a completely different matter.

      (note - you may want to clean up the first two paragraphs of your diary to identify them as part of the ABC News story)

      by joejoejoe on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:26:58 PM PDT

      •  You can argue that Saddam had nothing

        to do with al-Qaeda and you can argue going into Iraq was a distraction from the War on Terror and you would be totally correct.

        But, you would have to be blind to not see that al-Qaeda has made a base for itself in Anbar province and al-Qaeda in Iraq is now stronger then al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

        Zarqawi has enough money and followers that he has created a powerful new terror group in Afghanistan calling itself al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. And, has begun suicide bombings and beheadings in Afghanistan.

        Getting Zawahiri would be a great thing, but Iraq is a far bigger terrorist training ground and base today thanks to an unnecessary invasion.

        by ECH on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:34:51 PM PDT

        •  Agreed

          But Zawahiri is a very smart man with more imagination than most. I'm not so sure 'al-Qaeda in Iraq' is as competent as Zawahiri and Bin Laden. It's one thing to attack US military targets operating in an Arab country and another to mount a successful attack within the US.

          The funding of terrorism in the Sunni world is a complex story for another night. But Zawahiri and 9/11 are what I'm thinking of this evening.

          by joejoejoe on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 05:11:41 PM PDT

•  wow

  that means peace in afghanistan any day now. i can see the headlines now...

  too bad we have trained so many more in iraq... plenty more #2's out there. thank you gwb...

  by simplypete on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:22:32 PM PDT

•  He MAY be Dead, or

  He MAY be drinking tea in Paris.

  He's probably somewhere and may or may not be doing anything there.

  by The Baculum King on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:22:42 PM PDT

  •  He's in Cheney's rabbit hole

     .. it's a bit tight in there, and he accidently booted Dick in leg, hence the problem.

    You'd think with all the resources they have available, they could make a bigger rabbit hole.
    

    by shpilk on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:49:00 PM PDT

•  actually

  He's only been "killed" once or twice before. He's the #2... it's the #3 guy that we've killed a few dozen times.

  If we're going to use drones to drop bombs on soverign allies, this is exactly the type of case where it's justified. I hope they got him.

  by thirdparty on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:26:57 PM PDT

•  Well

  The story says:

  Villagers described seeing an unmanned plane circling the area for the last few days and then bombs falling in the early morning darkness.

  Why the hell would he go where this unmanned plane had been hanging out?

  by Semblance on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:27:51 PM PDT

•  As an added bonus ...

  This time they'll probably give the added bonus of saying they found No. 2 because he called someone in the U.S. and they tapped the phone line.

  by Pompatus on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:43:50 PM PDT

•  You silly people

  bin Laden and Zawahiri have been dead for years. They're zombies, which is why the War on Terra will never end.

  /snark

  by PatsBard on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:45:37 PM PDT

•  Of course the ISI would have to know...

  Their Human Resources department would have to stop his paycheck...

  by calipygian on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:48:37 PM PDT

•  Story's Coming Out of Washington

  Not Pakistan.  Pak papers report consistently 18 may have died, 14 confirmed.  The PakTribune names and gives ages of 11 of the victims.  It goes on to say "some of the victims were unidentified."

  Could be an al-Qaeda among 'em, but nothing confirms that in the Pakistani press yet.  Admittedly, they're just emerging today from a 2-day press hiatus due to a religious holiday.

  We'll see.  But remain skeptical.

  by Limelite on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 04:57:33 PM PDT

  •  Good catch

    There's nothing on Al Jazeera, and the Afghan/Pakistan news reports make no specific mention of identities either.

    by Sharon Jumper on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 05:15:32 PM PDT

  •  HVT

    Last time the Pakistanis, led by Musharaf, trumpeted a possible High Value Target for 48 hours until it was debunked by their inablility to produce a dead body.

    The timing of this also makes me suspicious.  Think of the media blitz, re: Alito's confirmation being a foregone conclusion leading into the weekend.  It feels like someone is dead set to remove discussions of substantive matters off the airwaves.  

    Is there a possible Fitzblitz around the corner?  Is Rove trying to get America's mind off important matters again?  Is someone trying to preoccupy our attention with other stuff so as to lessen our Alitorage and hence muzzle our call to Dems to show some spine by fillibusting him (and Mrs. Croctears Alito?)

    Anyone wanna bet she was told to cry? I won't put this past any Rove connected enterprise.  Does it surprise you that the sobs occured when the same Senator Lindsay, who is alleged to have coached Alito, started "apologizing" for the pain and suffering Alito's family had gone through and blah blah blah?

    by Wheatbread on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 05:16:41 PM PDT

•  FYI

  I spent an hour tonight on the phone with my son who is in Afghanistan.  He laughed when I asked him about this "story."

  by Sharon Jumper on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 05:40:57 PM PDT

•  Emmanual Goldstein cannot be killed

  This would make at least four times that Zawahiri has been killed.

  by gjohnsit on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 06:05:43 PM PDT

•  And Monkeys Might Fly Out of My Butt

  hey, it could happen

  by spoon or no spoon on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 07:18:30 PM PDT

•  I still think we would have been smarter

  to outsource this to the Mossad, who actually GOT the guys who kille their athletes in Munich. Brutal methods--but so was 9/11.

  We won't find bin Laden or his buds because Pakistan really doesn't want us to--to so many people there, he's a hero, not a terrorist (terorist being int he eye of the behodler).  The military dictator of Pakistan knows if they did catch him, he'd be toast.

  by irishwitch on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 09:16:08 PM PDT