A leading al-Qaeda member was confirmed as one of eight terror suspects killed in an army operation in a Pakistani tribal area in October. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP the identification of Abdur Rehman Khadr, a Canadian-born Egyptian, was established after DNA testing because his body had been badly mutilated during the operation.
| Dropped a house on him? Or was he wearing a boom belt as part of his duties as a humanitarian? My guess would be the latter. |
His son was also injured in the operation but his condition is stable, according to a senior security official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Khadr is the second from among the eight suspects killed in South Waziristan tribal region to be identified by the US and Pakistani authorities. Earlier another suspect was identified as Hasan Mahsum, who was described by China as its top "terrorist" along with 10 other ethnic Uighur Muslim separatists, all from China’s western Xinjiang region, on its first-ever list of "terrorists". Mahsum, 39, was identified as a leader in the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which China said was a "terrorist" group.
| They call it that because they "kill people." We knew Hasan was toes up last month. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of the corpses, ain't it? |
The army had also arrested 18 suspects during the operation at Angor Ada in South Waziristan, a rugged region with a population of around 400,000. It has been in the spotlight as a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters fleeing US military operations across the border in Afghanistan. Two Pakistani soldiers were also killed in a gunbattle with the suspects. The Angor Ada battle was one of the fiercest waged by Pakistani troops against al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects since Pakistan joined the Unites States in the war on terrorism two years ago. Angor Ada faces Afghanistan’s Shkin district and is just 15 kilometres from the Afghan town of Barmal, part of which was reportedly controlled by Taliban. |