Or so says the Associated Press:
A senior Obama administration official says al-Qaida No. 2 leader, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan.
Al-Rahman was a Libyan national who was considered al-Qaida’s operational leader before rising to the No. 2 spot following Osama bin Laden’s death in May.
Al-Rahman was reportedly killed in Waziristan on August 22, the same day as a reported drone strike in that region. So put two and two together.
It’s Zawahiri I want dead. He’s a fucking monster.
#1 it’s always fun to be snarky, but the fact is we are TARGETING al-qaida’s leaders, we’re not just dropping bombs randomly on Pakistan (as much as they might deserve it). And of course we don’t announce that we also killed 9 foot soldiers, and assorted civilians in the drone attack that killed the leader, we’re only announcing the intended target. Al Qaidi on the other hand has a much more difficult time getting to our “top ranking officials”, and besides they understand from history that they don’t have to. They only have to kill enough low level troops (much easier to get to) to make the continuation of our prescence unacceptable to the American public.
Al qaida’s leaders aren’t doing any more actual fighting then ours are. Those days are long gone.
Time to pull our soldiers out. The spooks and the special forces seem to be getting the job done just fine.
@3
Pretty assholey to believe that randomly-dropped bombs will find victims that deserved it anyway.
Don’t we kill “al Qaida #2” about once a week? It’s sorta like being the oldest person in the world. You know you’re not gonna be around for much longer.
@3
Though I am now thinking my sarcasm detector might have been off. In any case, I withdraw my previous comment.
There is an infinite supply of Al Qaeda #2 leaders, so long as we continue to kill innocent men, women, and children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_…
How many children did out drones turn into red mist in the past 30 days? That would be an interesting counterpoint to the news of killing the 234th “#2 man”.
“So who is REALLY being killed? Would you know a top ranking official of Al Quaida? I would not.”
If I don’t know it, it isn’t known OR knowable!
@3 those are some pretty tall soldiers.
Good news in my opinion. If we impress upon Al Qaeda that there is nowhere they can hide, their morale will drop tremendously. Panopticism at work.
Hopefully they’ve been using the Griffin rather than the Hellfire, so as to reduce collateral damage and thus the likelihood of civilian casualties.
Haven’t we killed number 2 like 7 times? Are we learning? You know what news I want to hear?
“America’s military kills Al-Qaida #2 – AND NO ONE WANTS TO REPLACE HIM.”
You’d think the #3 guy would refuse the promotion to being the #2 guy.