| Dancing girls pic pulled, accordion lady substituted. Let's get confirmation. A severed head would be nice. |
If confirmed, the death of Abdul Basit Usman would represent another success for the U.S. covert missile program on targets in Pakistan. There have been an unprecedented number of attacks this month following a deadly Dec. 30 militant attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan.
Two military intelligence officers in northwestern Pakistan said Usman was believed killed on Jan. 14 on the border of Pakistan's South and North Waziristan tribal regions. Another 11 militants were also killed in the strike on a militant compound. Authorities have previously said the attack had targeted the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud.
There had been no previous indication Usman was in Pakistan. If the reports of his death in Pakistan are true, it may indicate stronger ties between al-Qaida and Southeast Asian terrorist groups than previously thought.
The U.S. State Department's list of most-wanted terrorists identifies Usman as a bomb-making expert with links to the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf militant group and the Southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiyah network. It puts a bounty of U.S. $1 million for information leading to his conviction, and says he is believed responsible for bombings in the southern Philippines in 2006 and 2007 that killed 15 people.