http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110604/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistanISLAMABAD – An al-Qaida leader sought in the 2008 Mumbai siege and rumored to be a longshot choice to succeed Osama bin Laden was believed killed in a U.S. drone attack as he met with other militants in an apple orchard in Pakistan, an intelligence official said Saturday. If confirmed, it would be another blow against the terror organization a month after the slaying of its leader.
The purported death of Ilyas Kashmiri — who also was accused of killing many Pakistanis — could help soothe US-Pakistan ties that nearly unraveled after the May 2 bin Laden raid. While it was unclear how Kashmiri was tracked, his name was on a list of militants that both countries recently agreed to jointly target as part of measures to restore trust, officials have said.
It also would be a major victory for U.S. intelligence, particularly the controversial CIA-run drone program, which began in 2005 but has been increasingly criticized by the Pakistanis amid rising anti-American sentiment in the country.
A senior American official in Kabul said Saturday that the U.S. has no confirmation that Kashmiri is dead. Other Pakistani officials also said they couldn't confirm it.
Described by American officials as al-Qaida's military operations chief in Pakistan, the 47-year-old Pakistani was one of five most-wanted militant leaders in the country, accused of a string of bloody attacks in Pakistan and India as well as aiding plots in the West. He also has been named a defendant in an American court over a planned attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.
Washington had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his location.
He was suppose to be a new leader or one of the top choices anyway.
That didn't take long to kill him now did it.
