 A senior Al Qaeda operative killed in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan was a Syrian national, a senior minister said on Sunday.
| I'll bet that was why he went by "al-Suri." |
The Al Qaeda militant known as Abu Marwan al Suri was killed in a gunbattle with Pakistani soldiers on Thursday.
| If he'd been an Egyptian, like they first said, he'd have called himself "Abu Marwan al-Masri," I'll betcha... |
"I can confirm that he (al-Suri) was a Syrian national and an important member of the Al-Qaeda network," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP. "His death is a big achievement because he was also an explosives expert," Sherpao said, adding that al-Suri regularly provided cash handouts to families of senior Al Qaeda operatives.| An explosives expert and a money man. He was positively ambidextrous... |
| He was obviously a real go-to guy. Here's hoping he was irreplaceable. |
Security officials said the insurgent was killed near Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal district on Thursday after he was stopped at a checkpoint. "They called him for a body search and questioning. He came out of the vehicle then all of a sudden started firing at the paramilitary forces. They returned fire," one official said. One source said al-Suri may have killed himself to avoid capture. Al Suri was one of the targets of a US airstrike in January on the Damadola village in Bajaur, which killed 18 civilians and a handful of Al Qaeda suspects. |