NBC: Al-Qaida No. 3 leader killed in Pakistan, U.S. and Pakistani official

UPDATE

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The operational commander of al-Qaida and a top-five official in the terrorist organization was killed Wednesday or early Thursday by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials have told NBC News.

Pakistani sources said that Hamza Rabia was one of five men killed at a safehouse located in the village of Asorai, in western Pakistan, near the town of Mirali.

Local residents said that the men were killed by an unknown number of missiles fired by an unmanned Predator aircraft. The witnesses said that missile remnants carrying U.S. markings remain in the area. They also said they had heard six explosions, but it is uncertain how many of these were the result of missile attacks and how many may have been the result of the missiles detonating explosives inside the safehouse.

U.S. officials have said that Rabia succeeded Abu Faraj as operations chief. Rabia was brought into al-Qaida by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's No. 2. Like al-Zawahiri, Rabia is an Egyptian. U.S. officials have described him recently as "top-five al-Qaida" and, as one US official said Friday, "killing him would be indeed a very big deal."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10303175/
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Interesting that they never seem to get Zarqawi or Bin Laden.

I'm very tired of reading that they've killed the Number 2 Al-Qaida guy.

but not this time......

n/t

Al Qaeda actually has a defined number 2 guy, Ayman Al Zawahiri. Therefore, you can't just say that any old guy you kill is the #2 guy. It's the so-called "Al Qaeda In Iraq" group whose #2 we keep killing. With Al Qaeda proper, it has to be the #3 guy. :P

for 2 reasons:

1) Al Qaeda ops have caught on to the "Red Shirt Syndrome" made infamous during the original 'Star Trek' episodes.

AND

2) As a result, Al Qaeda has had a difficult time getting ANYONE to take the OFFICIAL #2 spot....


SO, we've moved on to the #3 person....until such time as there is a '+1 goto 1' subroutine and we start killing Al Qaeda person #4.....

Do you realize they have NO desire to kill the leaders because that would remove the threat - the eternal conflict - thus making Repukes even more useless than they already are...

with the US public. If they got Bin Laden or Zarqawi they wouldn't have a regonizable enemy.

You are a genius. Actually, I think more and more Americans are figuring this out. They may have to pull Bin Ladens corpse out of the morgue soon and anoint Zarqawi as the new leader (because he's already dead).

Zawhiri the Egyptian doctor is the number 2 of the origional al-Qaeda.

Zarqawi has his own organization that is allied with al-Qaeda, but it is certainly not al-Qaeda.

I don't think the military would want Zawhiri the new leader of al-Qaeda for the public, so if they get someone he will be next.

... and that number 2 was reportedly done in under Clinton in an attack on Osama that was derided by Preznit Cuccoo McBunnypants!

Bush and BinLaden are co-conspirators of the most dasterdly sort

:rofl:

Well that's a new one, I thought we only ever caught #2's. Or was he promoted to #2 when we caught the last 9 #2's?

By the way, do they have their ranking @ tatooed on their arse or something?

:rofl:

:rofl:

We read the headline and 7 of us all type the same thing at the same time?

:lol:

:rofl: :rofl:

:rofl:

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Wonder how long it will take, how many it will take, to get to #4?

then your government may be an @sshole.

The Administration Propaganda team has obviously just said screw it and started going with easy-to-remember numbers. We killed #2. We killed #3. Repeat ad nauseum. Sure, sure, they'll shake up their box of Arab-Sounding Name Refrigerator Magnets and come up with an appropriate-sounding mix of Abdul's and Aziz's and we'll have a name printed in the newspaper. But let's really just focus on their al Qaeda Official Ranking Number. We killed #3 last week. He was an exceptionally bad #3 and he was definitely catapulting the evil all around the axis.

And so, we descend into another chapter in the War on Fictional Characters.

were killed in Iraq before he went into the rose garden to give some good news on the economy Friday morning. As you will recall he did not mention it. 26 minutes later after his speech the news broke to the press. McCellan said bush knew before he gave the speech....

Once again the * administration changes the subject; forget about the 10 or 11 Soldiers killed and focus on some unknown "most wanted terrorist" killed.

Bush - the worst pResident in the history in the United States.

I want to know who this enemy is that causes us to transfer $300BB of our Treasury into the Republican Syndicate/MIC.

I mean, if everyone else they capture or kill is #2, this chump must have been the guy who keeps the photocopier filled, or something.

Again , I ask, "please let us have a look at the org chart. "
Jeeez, my children could lie better at 5 years old, than this bunch.

...same stuff all the time, and they never put 1+1 together. They just jump at the latest press release, instead of cognitively thinking, "gee, I think I've heard this stuff before"....

he is number three but is in the top 5.....huh?

...

(So, will this be another #3 or another #2 man?)

Al Qaeda commander killed in Pakistan: daily

Sat Dec 3, 2005 01:52 AM ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A senior al Qaeda commander is believed to have been killed in a tribal region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, a leading Pakistani newspaper reported on Saturday, though there was no official confirmation. The daily Dawn, citing unnamed sources, identified the man as Abu Hamza Rabia, operational commander of al Qaeda, and said he was among five militants killed in the North Waziristan tribal region on Thursday.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed could not immediately confirm the report. Officials had said on Thursday that the five militants were killed when a blast destroyed the house they were staying in, but residents of the troubled region said a helicopter fired rockets into the house.

The newspaper said Hamza's body was not recovered from the ruins, but was taken away by his comrades, along with the bodies of two other foreign militants. Intelligence officials told Reuters that Hamza was using the alias 'Nawab', and they subsequently intercepted a message passed between militants saying Nawab was dead.

Intelligence officials say Hamza, an Egyptian, was chief of the foreign affairs department of Osama bin Laden's militant group. Dawn said Hamza escaped an attack by Pakistani security forces on November 5 in the same region. However, eight people, including his wife and children, were killed in that operation.

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=10474199&src=rss/topNews>
(more at link above)

"However, eight people, including his wife and children, were killed in that operation."

Previous reports of #3 being killed were erroneous...

funny how they manage to kill #2 or #3 just after bush* gives a "major speech" and the GOPer choir sings of all the "progress"

looks like reports of killing/capturing of #2 or #3 has replaced terra-lerts

geeee.... I wonder why I don't believe it, and how much was this paper paid to run the story?

remember: Just because they say it doesn't make it so

"OK, now, everyone on my left is my number two guy. And, everyone on my right is my number three. I expect by next year to be so big, we may need fours and fives!"

Bush is in trouble for delaying release of the news of 10 marines being killed so that his speech won't look bad so the cons go into action ....

quick ...

have we killed Abu Musab Al Zarquawi yet? We did? 6 times? Damn ... how about the economy doing fantastic? We already done that? Damn ...
how about another terror threat? We didn't get any mileage out of the CT courthouse bomb? Damn ....

Ok ... let's kill another #2 man for Al Q'aida then. Let's hope this detracts the bubbas, hicks and trailertrash biblethumpers!!

CNN correspondent Salim Bokhari just reported from Islamabad that the body of Tabia is missing. The two CNN anchors were stunned to hear their own correspondent say this live on the air. They asked Bokhari to confirm, and he did confirm that "body is missing."

These guys are REALLY good! :eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1963596

It had fucking well better be.

tion. There is no logical explanation for the ineptitude and exaggerated reporting of this bunch of cretins.

Until next week when an obscure news item will mention that Rabia, our Emmanuel Goldstein of the moment, is still alive and on the loose.

This reminds me of the Predator strike that killed Osama in Afghanistan, and the one that killed Mullarh Omar, both stories were debunked within days.

shot...they looked about 8 or 9 yrs old.
...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The operational commander of al-Qaida and possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, Hamza Rabia, was killed early Thursday morning by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials told NBC News.

more here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10303175/

or at least the #3 man... Rotf. The bsuh crime family doesn't seem to want to take credit for the kill. Some say #3 blew himself up making bombs,while others say it was a "predator drone with hellfires"
What gives?

We are not gonna start settling for #3's when there are so many #2's running around.

Keep hitting their people with missles and they'll eventually like us! Great job CIA! (NOT)

Al Quaeda is going to want us dead whether we fire missiles at them or not.

AlQueda wouldn't be so pissed off at us if we weren't occupying their countries.

Al Quaeda exists exculsively to combat those they see as infidels and murder those they believe are corrupting Islam. If you see them as anything besides an enemy of the US, your sentiments are pretty divorced from reality.

On the ground, that's what Al-Qaeda believes. But the overall goal of Al-Qaeda is a united Middle East Hegemony under Islamic Law.

We're a convenient straw man to keep recruiting up and their base energized. The leaders utilize the vast array of political weapons at their disposal, as well as others, in order to infiltrate high-level government positions in the Arab world.

They are canny and ruthless, and one day they will have enough people in high places to realize their dream.

And we will have helped.

n/t

Guess Bin Laden's tougher than most missiles. Gotta settle for number 2 and 3.

They just make this shit up as they go along.

Number three, my ass!

Al Qaida, my ass.

Probably some poor farmer.

so how do they know?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1963596

I cannot say I'm unhappy that the CIA eliminated this guy.

Isn't this how the war on terrorism should be fought? Covertly striking legitimate enemies with the help of our allies (Pakistan)All feelings about the CIA aside, if this story is true it's a big success for the US, and one that didn't involve invading another country.

n/t

"Associates from outside Pakistan retrieved the bodies of Rabia and two other foreigners and buried them in an unknown location, the report said."

That's the big problem with these operations. Assassinations where you never even identify a body are obviously open to all kinds of abuse.

Is this a different #3 than the #3 they said was dead but wasn't..or was that a #2? Man, bushco can't fake us with their "it's all good news" anymore so they resort to "let's confuse the crap out of them".
Challenge to a MSM journalist with a conscience: SPEAK UP!!!

Maybe he's the #3 in Pakistan, but Al Qaida is spread all over the world now, at best, the #3 in Pakistan would really be about the #250 in all of Al Qaida.

And CNN is reporting that it was a Bomb making accident.:shrug:

sovereign country?

Of course, how could I forget?

:popcorn:

compared to the few dozen 'attempts' at a 'leadership strike' on saddam during the early stages of the war. they routinely bombed civilian areas HOPING to kill saddam and of course wiping out half a city block every time killing scores of innocents each and every time.