By Robert Windrem, NBC News producer
Abu Laith al-Libi, one of al-Qaida’s most senior commanders, was apparently killed early Tuesday morning in a Predator attack on a house in the Mir Ali district of Pakistan’s tribal area, U.S. officials say.
Western and U.S. intelligence officials declined to say how the senior commander of al-Qaida operations in Afghanistan died, other than to say, “It was not from natural causes.” But a senior military official told NBC News on Wednesday that al-Libi had been targeted in the attack that killed 10 militants and five others. The main target in the 1:15 a.m. attack was a male guesthouse owned by Madad Khan, believed to be a Taliban militant, according to Pakistani officials.
"Abu Laith al Libi headed up al-Qaida paramilitary operations in Afghanistan and worked closely with the Taliban,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official. "This was a big guy. The world is a safer place now that he is off the street.”
He was described as al-Qaida's top trainer and fighter in charge of al-Qaida paramilitary operations and at times personally led operations aimed at U.S. and Afghan targets inside Afghanistan. Another U.S. official said the U.S. considers his death a major intelligence success.
The targeted house was in Khushali Torikhel, 12 kilometers south of Mir Ali town in North Waziristan, a province long believed to harbor some of al-Qaida’s top officials.
In fact, it was the second time that U.S. Predators had killed one of Khan’s guests. In December 2005, Hamza Rabia was killed as he slept in a Khan guest house not far from the one where al-Libi was killed. Rabia was the operational commander of al-Qaida.
Al-Libi was one of al-Qaida’s senior commanders. According to one official, he was “in the top six of al-Qaida’s hierarchy.” Another pegged him at number four.
“He is old-school bad, been around for a long time”, said Roger Cressey, a senior counter-terrorism official in the Clinton and Bush White House and now an NBC News analyst. “He was also very close to Bin Laden.”
Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, said last year that al-Libi was a guerrilla fighter "knowledgeable about how to conduct suicide bombing missions and how to inflict the most civilian casualties." He had probably directed "one or more terror training camps," Belcher said.
U.S. forces had targeted al-Libi last June in Afghanistan, but failed. In that attack, seven children died. At the time, U.S. officials said they were unaware of the children’s’ presence. Later, other U.S. officials admitted they knew children were present but went ahead with the attack anyway. Pakistani officials said three “minors” were killed in Tuesday’s attack as well.
NBC News Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this report.
