[ FBI DESK ]

Al Qaeda's Ilyas Kashmiri killed in US drone attack

Ilyas Kashmiri addressing a news conference in Islamabad in 2001

The U.S. government has confirmed the killing of al Qaeda operational commander Ilyas Kashmiri, the prime minister of Pakistan said on June 6, 2011. Ilyas Kashmiri was killed on June 3, 2011, said Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani at a conference in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan province, according to the CNN. But he did not explain how he knew the US had confirmed the death of Kashmiri by counter-terrorism officials as al Qaeda's military brain.

A supporter of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami shouts during a rally against drone attacks

Earlier, Kashmiri's Islamic militant guerrilla faction, Harkat-ul Jihad Islami, had confirmed his death via an e-mail. "Our commander Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri was martyred in an American drone attack." The militant leader's death was also confirmed by a Pakistani security official in South Waziristan on condition of anonymity in accord with government policy.

The drone strike occurred at about 11 p.m. in the village of Ghawa Khawa, about 20 kilometers south of the South Waziristan district center. News reports say the missiles struck outside a home where a group of Islamic militant fighters, including Taliban, were holding a meeting.

Kashmiri's death is the first major kill or capture since Osama Bin Laden, and the highest profile drone target since Beitullah Mehsud in 2009. It could also be seen as an embarrassment for Pakistanis, who have twice in just over one month, had a major al Qaeda figure killed on their territory without their participation. U.S. drones now operate entirely autonomously in Pakistan, a Pakistani intelligence source has told CNN.

Whereas before the US cooperated with Pakistan and used their intelligence, today, the Americans have an intelligence network that allows them to go after terrorists unilaterally. Kashmiri, a veteran jihadist, was considered one of the most dangerous men in the world by counterterrorism officials on three continents. According to a report in Express Tribune newspaper, the new group was plotting a wave of suicide bombings across Pakistan and to target embassies and diplomats. A 2009 grand jury in Chicago indicted Kashmiri, who said to have ties with David Coleman Headley, the U.S. citizen who confessed to helping scout targets for the Mumbai attack in November 2008, for allegedly conspiring to bomb a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

The US State Department says Kashmiri and his movement were responsible for a March 2006 car bomb attack on the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, that killed diplomat David Foy and three others. The US last year designated Kashmiri a terrorist and offered a US$5 million reward for information that might lead to his capture.

6 charged in US over support for Pak Taliban

Six people in Florida and Pakistan have been charged with providing financing and material support to the Pakistani Taliban, a designated foreign terrorist organization, U.S. federal officials said. Wifredo A. Ferrer, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and local FBI agents on May 14, 2011, announced the fourcount indictment against three U.S. citizens resident in Florida, including two imams, and three other individuals living in Pakistan. The indictment charged Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan (hereafter "Khan"), 76, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; his son Irfan Khan, 37, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; and one of his other sons, Izhar Khan, 24, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Lauderdale, Fla. Three other individuals residing in Pakistan, Ali Rehman, aka "Faisal Ali Rehman;" Alam Zeb; and Amina Khan, aka "Amina Bibi," are also charged in the indictment. Amina Khan is the daughter of Khan and her son, Alam Zeb, is Khan's grandson. All six were charged with conspiring to provide material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim, and kidnap persons overseas, as well as provide material support to the Pakistani Taliban. If convicted, each faces a potential 15 years in prison for each count of the indictment.

The defendants are originally from Pakistan. Hafiz Khan is the Imam at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, in Miami. His son, Izhar Khan, is an Imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, Fla. The indictment does not charge the mosques themselves with any wrongdoing, and the individual defendants are charged based on their providing material support to terrorism, not on their religious beliefs or teachings. Ferrer stated, "Despite being an Imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today's charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming."

"Today terrorists have lost another funding source to use against innocent people and U.S. interests. We will not allow this country to be used as a base for funding and recruiting terrorists," said John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Miami Office. "I remind everyone that the Muslim and Arab-American members of our community should never be judged by the illegal activities of a few."

This investigation was initiated by the FBI in conjunction with the JTTF based upon a review of suspicious financial transactions and other evidence; it was not an undercover sting. According to the allegations in the indictment, from around 2008 to November 2010, the defendants provided money, financial services, and other forms of support to the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Tehrik-I-Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and Tehreek-e-Taliban, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in December 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants.

- [BY GAURI KUMAR]