By Haji Mujtaba
12/05/05 "Reuters" -- - HAISORI, Pakistan, Dec 4 - Pakistani
tribesmen on Sunday displayed parts of a U.S.-marked missile they
said hit a house and killed two boys, evidence at odds with the
government which says an explosion there killed a top al Qaeda
commander.
Whatever the cause of the blast, the death of Abu Hamza Rabia would
be a coup for Pakistan and the United States which describe him as al
Qaeda's chief of international operations.
But his body has not been found.
Sat amid the ruins of his mud and concrete-walled home in the restive
North Waziristan tribal agency, Haji Mohammad Siddiq told Reuters his
17-year old son and an eight-year-old nephew were killed in a missile
attack, but denied there were any militants present.
"I don't know anything about them -- there were no foreigners in my
house," Siddiq said. "I have nothing to do with foreigners or al
Qaeda.
"We were sleeping when I heard two explosions in my guest room. When
I went there I saw my son, Abdul Wasit, and my eight-year-old nephew,
Noor Aziz, were dead," said the tall, moustachioed tribesman as he
received condolences from a stream of relatives and neighbours.
Pakistan, sensitive to domestic public opinion, has denied U.S. drone
aircraft have carried out missile strikes on its soil in the past and
Washington has declined to comment.
But tribesmen in Haisori showed U.S.-marked fragments of missiles
they said hit the village early on Thursday. One piece of casing
clearly bore the words US and MISSILE.
"I heard more explosions and went out to the courtyard, and when I
looked up at the sky, I saw a white drone," said Siddiq. "I saw a
flash of light come from the drone followed by explosions."
The tribesman, in his 50s, has been asked to appear later this week
before a court convened by government-appointed tribal agency
officials.
"200 PERCENT SURE"
President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday he was "200 percent" sure
Rabia was dead.
But confirmation of Rabia's death is based on intelligence reports
and message intercepts, intelligence sources said, and Pakistani
security forces have still to find a body.
Officials say Rabia's corpse, along with those of two comrades, was
removed by other fighters and buried secretly.
An Arab television channel, al Arabiya, received a telephone call
from an unidentified caller denying Rabia was dead.
U.S. counterterrorism officials in Washington confirmed the
significance of Rabia's death, but gave no comment on how he might
have been killed.
Rabia's death would have a profound impact on al Qaeda's ability to
maintain its standing as the pre-eminent global militant
organisation, as most veterans had been killed or captured, according
to Rohan Gunaratna, security analyst at Singapore's Institute of
Defence and Strategic Studies.
"He was in many ways the last leader to have an understanding of how
the network operates outside Pakistan and Afghanistan," Gunaratna
said.
U.S. drones are reported to have operated in the area before, and in
May a drone missile attack was reported to have killed al Qaeda
bombmaker, Haitham al-Yemeni, in North Waziristan.
Pakistan denied an attack happened while the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency declined to comment.
If a U.S. Predator drone did carry out Thursday's attack, neither the
United States or Pakistan would be likely to admit it. Although
Pakistan is a key ally in the war on terrorism, it refuses to allow
foreign troops on its soil, particularly the sensitive semi-
autonomous tribal areas.
Hundreds of militants fled to Pakistan after U.S.-led forces
overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban government in late 2001 for
harbouring Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden himself is believed to have
passed through North Waziristan during his escape.
Copyright Reuters
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11216.htm
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