TheGirlNextDoor
Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 22608
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 4:48 pm Post subject: Pakistan Denies Report of al-Qaida Killing |
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SLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan on Saturday denied a media report that an unmanned CIA Predator aircraft killed a senior al-Qaida operative near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border earlier this week.
ABC News, quoting unidentified intelligence sources, reported Friday that senior al-Qaida operative Haitham al-Yemeni was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned CIA Predator aircraft.
But Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Amhed told The Associated Press that, "No such incident took place near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border."
A U.S. military spokeswoman in Afghanistan, Lt. Cindy Moore, said forces from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan were not involved in such an incident, but she couldn't say whether it had taken place.
The CIA has declined to comment on the report.
Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, earlier this month arrested Abu Faraj al-libbi, reputed to be al-Qaida's No. 3 leader.
ABC News said that after the capture of al-Libbi, officials decided to strike at al-Yemeni rather than risk that he would go into hiding.
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