Top bin Laden aide likely killed in airstrike, officials say

By John J. Lumpkin

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Mohammed Atef, the right-hand man to Osama bin Laden who is accused of helping plan the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is believed to have been killed by an airstrike near Kabul in the past two days, U.S. officials said today.

The Egyptian Islamic militant “was bin Laden’s military specialist since the early 1990s, widely thought to be bin Laden’s successor in the event of his death,” said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Atef was among bin Laden’s top two advisers and head of al-Qaida’s military arm, which is believed to have planned and executed the suicide hijackings two months ago, the official said.

The official, citing unspecified credible information obtained by U.S. intelligence, said Atef is believed to have died during an American airstrike earlier this week near Kabul, the Afghan capital. Another official said Atef’s body has not been located.

Atef was a member of the Islamic Jihad of Egypt and supported the group’s merger with al-Qaida in 1998 to form the International Front for Fighting Jews and Crusades.

That group’s military wing claimed responsibility for the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the United States has charged him with murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States and attack on a federal facility in connection with the bombings.

The death of bin Laden’s operational planner would be a blow to al-Qaida’s ability to launch fresh terrorist attacks, experts and officials said. The group’s members are being pursued in Afghanistan by U.S. special forces and rebels opposed to the Taliban regime.

“That’s going to be a significant setback for al-Qaida,” Daniel Benjamin, a former National Security Council staffer and terrorism expert now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of reports of Atef’s death. “He was an absolutely key member of the leadership, particularly with regard to their so-called military operations, otherwise known as their terrorist attacks.”

The focus of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan has shifted more toward tracking down bin Laden and al-Qaida leaders, who are thought to be hiding in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban still retain some control

The attack marks at least the second airstrike to target al-Qaida’s leaders directly. Another strike, conducted by U.S. bombers and a CIA Predator armed drone on a building south of Kabul on Tuesday, is believed to have killed some bin Laden lieutenants, but it is not known who. A third airstrike, on Wednesday in Kandahar, targeted either Taliban or al-Qaida leaders.

Pentagon officials have said some senior Taliban and al-Qaida leaders have been killed in recent days, but had previously offered no names.

“We are tightening the noose,” Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. forces in the region, said Thursday at the Pentagon.

The State Department was offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of Atef.

In October 1999, the FBI charged Atef and other al-Qaida members in a conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals. The indictment pointed to the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as being part of the conspiracy.

Along with spiritual adviser and fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, Atef was said to be one of bin Laden’s top two lieutenants. Earlier this year, Atef’s daughter married bin Laden’s son, and TV footage of the wedding was broadcast on an Arab satellite station.

Atef, who is also known as Sobhi al-Sitta and Abu Hafs el-Masry, is believed to be a former Egyptian police officer. He was born around 1944 in Minoufia, north of Cairo.

His affiliation with bin Laden dates back to the early 1980s, when he helped bin Laden recruit fighters for the Afghan war with the Soviet Union.

Atef was a leader in the Islamic Jihad of Egypt, which has been linked to a number of attacks in Egypt, including the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. He later helped establish al-Qaida and took charge of its security. He was principally responsible for operational planning and terrorist training for al-Qaida members.

The British government says Atef traveled to Somalia several times in 1992 and 1993 to organize violence against U.S. and U.N. troops then stationed in that African nation. On each occasion he reported back to bin Laden, who was based at the time in Khartoum, Sudan.

In 1998, he became commander of the military wing of the International Front for Fighting Jews and Crusades, which was formed that year by the merger of al-Qaida with Islamic Jihad of Egypt, two Pakistani militant groups and a Bangladeshi unit.

The military wing, known as the Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy Sites, claimed responsibility for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

An Egyptian court sentenced Atef to life imprisonment in absentia in 1999 after convicting him of subversion and membership of Islamic Jihad.

Last month, the London-based Islamic Observation Center, which acts as a public relations contact for Islamic fundamentalist groups, quoted Atef as saying U.S. troops would suffer the same fate in Afghanistan as they did in Somalia, where bodies of slain U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets in 1993.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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