Daily Times

KABUL: Two top al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan were killed in a US drone attack, the nation’s spy agency confirmed Thursday, in a major blow to the group as it seeks to re-establish safe havens in the country.

Washington said the strikes on Sunday targeted Farouq al-Qahtani, al Qaeda’s emir for northeastern Afghanistan, and his deputy Bilal al-Utabi, calling it the most significant attack against the group in several years. “Multiple Hellfire missiles levelled two different compounds in Kunar where the men were believed to be hiding,” US officials said Wednesday, without confirming if the strikes were successful.

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) offered confirmation of their death on Thursday, adding that a third senior member of the group had also been killed. “The attack was carried out in coordination with the NDS,” the spy agency said in a statement, without naming the third leader.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook had earlier said their demise would deal a blow to the militant group’s presence in Afghanistan. “Eliminating these core leaders of al Qaeda will disrupt efforts to plot against the United States and our allies, reduce the threat to our Afghan partners, and assist their efforts to deny al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan,” Cook said.

Another US official said the attack represented the most significant strike against the al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan in years. The Pentagon had been actively hunting for Qahtani for four years. He had longstanding ties with Osama Bin Laden before his death in the 2011.

Qahtani has operated in Afghanistan since at least 2009 and led an al Qaeda battalion since at least mid-2010, officials said. “He was seeking to re-establish (al Qaeda’s) control in Afghanistan,” the US official said. “He was charged with the requirement to establish safe havens throughout Kunar and Nuristan provinces.” His deputy Utabi was seen as the second or third-most senior al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, the official said.