Islamabad (Alshahid) – The al-Qaeda operative killed in a Predator drone attack in western Pakistan this week may have been one of the group’s top operations officers.
Saleh al Somali is thought to have been killed in the strike in the town of Aspangla, near the main town of Miramshah in North Waziristan. The region is controlled by the dangerous Haqqani Network, a Taliban group with close links to al Qaeda and Pakistan’s military and intelligence services.
He is thought to be a key contact for jihadists operating in the U.S. and Europe.
He has ties to a militia group in Somalia called al-Shabab.
Reports indicate that his involvement in Somalia goes all the way back to Mogadishu during the Black Hawk Down incident that resulted in the deaths of 19 US troops and hundreds of Somalis during an operation to detain a Somali warlord in the capital in the fall of 1993
Al Somali was also active in al Qaeda’s propaganda efforts and until his death Al Somali was the group’s external operations chief.
