Monday, April 30, 2012

German jihadist killed by US in March drone strike


A German jihadist is thought to have been killed in an airstrike carried out by US drones on March 9 in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan.
The German, a known "Islamist" from Aachen, has been identified at Samir H., according to a report in Der Spiegel. Samir was one of 13 Taliban and "foreign fighters" who were killed in the March 9 strike in Makeen, South Waziristan. In that strike, the remotely-piloted US strike aircraft fired missiles at a pickup truck transporting Taliban fighters.
Samir was the "son of a Tunisian father and a German mother" and was "born and raised in East Germany," according to Jih@d, a website that tracks European jihadists. Samir "traveled to Pakistan in October 2009 with his wife and two children, and joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). In November 2009 Samir´s sister, at the age of 18, followed her older brother and made her way to the Waziristan tribal region."
The town of Makeen is in an area under the control of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is closely allied to al Qaeda. The US has struck targets in Makeen four other times, in 2008 and 2009. One strike in June 2009 killed Khwaz Ali Mehsud, a top aide to Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Baitullah himself was killed shortly thereafter by a drone strike in August 2009 in nearby Ladha.
In a controversial follow-up strike in Makeen at the funeral for Khwaz Ali, US drones killed 83 Pakistanis, including 30 "militants." Senior terrorist leaders, including Haqqani Network commander Mullah Sangeen Zadran, and Baitullah and his deputy Qari Hussain Mehsud, were thought to be attending the funeral.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/04/german_jihadist_kill.php#ixzz1tWqdGTrI
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