Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Yahya Al-Libi are on the CIA Drone hit-list: Washington Post

Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Yahya Al-Libi are on the CIA Drone hit-list: Washington Post

According to a report of Washington Post that the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) graded Ayman AL-Zawahiri and his second in Command (2 IC) Abu Yahya Al-Libi as a  high worth objectives in the drone crusade against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

However, United States official reportedly said that lower-level troops and other rebellious groups will also remain a focal point of Predator observations and strikes.

“Now is not the time to let up the pressure,” said a US official familiar with drone operations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

“We’ve got an opportunity to keep them down, and letting up now could allow them to regenerate.”

“We have rendered the organisation that brought us 9/11 operationally ineffective,” a senior US counterterrorism official said. Speaking on whether what exists of al Qaeda’s leadership group beyond the top two positions, the official said: “Not very much.
Not any of the world-class terrorists they once had.”

Official said that Al-Qaeda’s reduction comes in the middle of hint the group has believed displacing in recent years. The group’s weakened condition has hoisted questions for the CIA about its deployment of personnel and resources.

According to officials, CIA has resisted moving functioning away from Pakistan because its main concern is to quench the network’s base as Al-Qaeda has regrouped in the past.

Despite the fact that US Counter terrorism officials now evaluate Al-Qaeda’s subsidiary in Yemen as a considerably greater menace, the CIA’s station in Pakistan’s Capital remains one of its biggest in the world.

US counterterrorism and intelligence officials said that the leadership ranks of the most important Al-Qaeda terrorist network, once extroverted enough to administer the plan for September 11, 2001, have been condensed to just two figures whose termination
would signify the group’s trounce,

US officials, who described Al-Qaeda as being on the threshold after Osama bin Laden was killed said that they have been surprised by the pace and extent of group’s reduction in the six months.

The arrest of an alleged Al-Qaeda sympathizer this week in New York accentuated the group’s capability to instigate “lone wolf” assaults.

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Posted by M Aftab Qureshi on Nov 23 2011. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry