The reported killing of another Qaeda commander in Pakistan earlier this week demonstrates the pressure the U.S. is putting on the terrorists there. But does it also mean that al Qaeda’s core is on the verge of collapse, as some suggest? There the picture is much more complicated.
Abu Hafs al-Shahri, a Saudi, had been a Qaeda operative for years. According to Saudi media accounts, he operated in Syria for several years before moving to Pakistan. He is alleged to have been chief of operations for al Qaeda in Pakistan when he died. His demise comes after the death of Osama bin Laden in May and the recovery of a library of data from his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The exploitation of that library has clearly been a great boon to counterterrorist operations. Senior Qaeda officials like Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman have reportedly been killed since then, and at least one, a Mauritanian, has been captured by the Pakistanis.
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