Al-Qaeda Pakistan leader believed dead

BAKU. January 9. KAZINFORM experts believe these men were killed on New Year's day.

A probable missile strike on New Year's day in Pakistan's south Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, has killed two top al-Qaeda terrorists. The two, al-Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan, Usama al-Kini, also known as Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, and his lieutenant, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, were on the FBI's "most wanted" list, a US counterterrorism expert said on Thursday. He said that the two were responsible for killing Americans in the past and planned to kill Americans again in the future. Al-Kini and Swedan, both Kenyan-born, were indicted in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which many consider the key precursor to 9/11. They are also believed to be behind a deadly suicide bombing at a Marriot hotel in Pakistan's capital that killed 53 in September. The CIA, believed to conduct drone strikes in the region, declined to comment. Pakistan has sharply protested U.S. strikes as a violation of sovereignty, and the United States has refused to confirm them. U.S. forces in Afghanistan carried out about 30 missile strikes in Pakistan in 2008, according to a Reuters tally, mostly since the beginning of September. Kini was the eighth senior al Qaeda leader to have died since July, the counterterrorism official said. Al-Qaeda's top leaders Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be at large and hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border area, Kazinform refers to Trend News.