ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen on Wednesday attacked and seriously injured a longtime ally of Osama bin Laden whom U.S. authorities have linked to an alleged terrorist sleeper cell in California.
The fact they left him alive leads me to beleive someone is trying to make a point. I just don't know who is trying to make the point.
Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a signatory to Bin Laden's 1998 declaration of war on the United States and its allies, was severely beaten by eight armed men, supporters said.
8 banditos...and he's still alive? Interesting.
The assailants dragged Khalil and his driver from a mosque in Tarnol, about three miles northwest of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, as they attended evening prayers, said his spokesman, Sultan Zia.
His spokesman? He's got a spokesman?
Khalil is a
I guess it's kinda like Coke and Coke Classic.
Khalil's attackers held him for five hours, tying a rope around his neck and beating him with rifle butts before dumping him in front of a mosque on Islamabad's outskirts, his spokesman said. "He was left in a very serious condition with a severe head injury. However, he has survived with the grace of
In June, the FBI arrested Lodi, Calif., ice cream truck driver Umer Hayat, 48, and his son Hamid, 23, and charged them with training in one of Khalil's camps in Pakistan for attacks in the U.S. The men are on trial in a Sacramento court. The prosecution rested its case Tuesday.
No mercy.
Khalil co-signed Bin Laden's 1998 fatwa, or religious edict, that declared it "an individual duty" for Muslims to kill American civilians and troops, or their allies, anywhere they could be found in the world.
There has to be a reason he hasn't taken a dirt nap. I just don't know what it is.
Bin Laden's deputy, Egyptian physician Ayman Zawahiri, and two other Egyptian and Pakistani extremists also signed the declaration by the so-called World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders.
That same year, then-President Clinton ordered an attack with Tomahawk cruise missiles on targets in Afghanistan to kill Bin Laden after Al Qaeda attacks on two U.S. embassies in East Africa left at least 224 people dead. The strikes also targeted Khalil's camps near the eastern Afghan town of Khowst.
Known enemy of the US. We know where he is at. The Pakistan government knows where he is at.
Intelligence assessments concluded that the missile strikes missed Bin Laden by a few hours, but Khalil claimed several of his fighters were killed in the airstrikes.
Living on borrowed time.
In testimony before the 9/11 Commission in 2004, Clinton's national security advisor, Samuel R. "Sandy
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf banned Khalil's militant group in 2001, after he ended support for the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan and joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.
But do not have him in custody.
Pakistani authorities arrested Khalil in 2004 when he was accused of aiding militants crossing into Afghanistan to attack U.S.-led forces.
He was detained at least two more times but was released each time under what Pakistan's government insisted was close supervision to ensure he didn't engage in militant activities.
As late as 2004, Khalil continued to raise funds and rally militants to wage jihad against the U.S. in a magazine called Al Hilal, published from his headquarters, in a mosque next to a school and across from an army base in Rawalpindi.
A November 2003 edition of the magazine featured an advertisement on the back page, announcing the "All-Pakistan Training Convention of Jamiat ul Ansar Activists," at Khalil's headquarters.
I dunno. I just don't understand.