It's not necessarily in that order, but bad news nonetheless. Al Qaeda continues losing ground, and even the Guardian is forced to admit that al Qaeda is losing its war against the West and the US in particular. Of course, they have to find an expert who claims that if the next US president follows the Bush Administration operational plans and continues the fight against al Qaeda, that all these gains will be lost. That appears farcical on its face considering that the Bush strategy has decimated al Qaeda.
Meanwhile, US and Afghan forces are busy fighting the Taliban along the Afghan/Pakistani border which has resulted in casualties, though reports suggest that it may involve Pakistani troops among those killed.
The Taliban continue getting squeezed, as Afghan police captured 261 tons of opium and hashish. That's going to leave a mark.
Speaking of Zawahiri, there are rumors suggesting that Ayman al Zawahiri was the focus of the Predator airstrike reported in Pakistan today, though all that appears clear is that we hit some kind of high value target. This is the fifth known strike in recent months. Those airstrikes resulted in killing Abu Laith al Libi in January and Abu Sulayman Jazairi, a senior Algerian operative for al Qaeda’s central organization, along with 13 associates, were killed in a May airstrike. It's been suggested at Adam Gadahn (aka Adam the Traitor) was killed in the May airstrike as well.
There's no news to suggest that Zawahiri bought the farm, though it would certainly be good news for the US efforts to decimate al Qaeda leadership and reduce their capabilities drastically.
AJ Strata thinks that we got him and notes that some reports indicate that the Pakistani forces killed were fighting alongside the Taliban forces engaged in fighting the US and Afghan troops. Given the precarious nature of Pakistan's control over the frontier provinces, that is quite plausible.
No comments:
Post a Comment