, Asia Times, 9 October 2010

EXCERPT: "Pakistani Mohammad Usman was little-known other than for being wanted for the killing of a police officer in 1997 and his connections with prayer leaders at the Taliban-friendly Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad in the early 2000s. [...] In the al-Qaeda camp, however, Usman has been described as 'irreplaceable', his death on a scale of the killings of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid and Shiekh Fateh al-Misri. Misri in May replaced Yazid, who was also killed in a drone attack in the North Waziristan tribal area, as al-Qaeda's chief commander in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Misri perished in a drone strike this month. While US drones are concentrated on Arab-origin al-Qaeda members,Usman,who was in his mid-thirties, is an example of al-Qaeda's new generation of jihadis born in Pakistan and ideologically shaped in the tribal areas to assume senior positions in al-Qaeda. [...] [A]lthough not an Arab, he steadily climbed up the jihadi ladder, eventually serving on the personal staff of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. [...] The strike that killed Usman had apparently targeted high-profile Arabs, Uzbeks and Europeans in North Waziristan - American intelligence was unaware that he was in the area; he was collateral damage."

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Related articles:
Senior bin Laden aide killed in recent Predator strike [blog], The Long War Journal, 8 October 2010
US Predators kill 9 in pair of strikes [blog], The Long War Journal, 8 October 2010
Bin Laden's deputy behind the Red Mosque bloodbath, The Times Online, 15 July 2007

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