PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - An Arab militant killed by Pakistani security forces was an al Qaeda "bag man", a senior official said on Friday. The militant, shot dead in the Bajaur tribal region on Thursday, is believed to have distributed funds to families left behind in Pakistan and Afghanistan by Iraq al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and others, the security official in North West Frontier Province told Reuters. He was also involved in organising attacks on U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan. "His death is quite a significant blow to al Qaeda," the official said.The man, named as Marwan Hadid al-Suri, 38, was an explosives expert and was wanted by the United States. The official said they found a notebook on al-Suri that contained a ledger listing al Qaeda members and their family members who were to receive funds. Zarqawi was on the list.
The official referred to al-Suri as a "bag man" for al Qaeda. "He was giving them money every three months," he said. The location of the relatives was not given. Al-Suri had married an Afghan woman, as had many foreign al Qaeda fighters. The Pakistani security official, who requested anonymity, said al-Suri, which means Syrian, was involved in al Qaeda operations in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad and moved to Bajaur in 2005 to organise attacks in the Afghan province of Kunar.
The killing of al-Suri came as Pakistan beefed up security along its Afghan border in Bajaur and some other tribal areas to help a recent U.S. and Afghan offensive against militants in Kunar. He is believed to have escaped a U.S. airstrike on a house in Damadola village in Bajaur in January that U.S. officials said had been targeted at al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri.
Zawahri was not present, but a handful of al Qaeda operatives were killed in the January 13 attack, according to Pakistani officials.
The security official said al-Suri was carrying a notebook that contained instructions, in Arabic, and diagrams of circuits for bombs and plastic explosives. Suri was killed in a shoot-out in Bajaur's main town of Khar when he opened fire on troops who had stopped the minibus he was travelling in. He killed one of the soldiers.
Al-Suri's killing came a week after the security forces killed an Egyptian al Qaeda member wanted for involvement in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Zawahri is believed to be hiding in the rugged border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most speculation points to al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden also being in Pakistan, but probably outside the tribal areas.