Senior al-Qaida leader targeted in US drone strike that killed 15 in Pakistan

AFP/Getty Images file

Al-Qaida official Abu Yahya al-Libi, who escaped from U.S. custody in Afghanistan in 2005, is shown in a screen grab from an al-Qaida propaganda videotape released in July 2008.

By Robert Windrem
NBC New

A Predator attack over the weekend targeted Abu Yahya al-Libi, a leading al-Qaida operative who was viewed as one of five candidates to succeed Osama bin Laden as leader of the terrorist group when he was killed last year.  U.S. officials confirm that he was the target of the Sunday attacks and say they are awaiting word on his status.
In one of three strikes over the weekend, a U.S. drone struck a militant compound early Monday morning in North Waziristan, part of  Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area. Pakistan security reports indicated the pre-dawn strike killed 15 insurgents, but. U.S. officials said the number of dead was “exaggerated.”
The Agence France Presse news agency reported that two missiles were fired on the compound in Mir Ali, 15 miles east of Miramshah, the capital of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, in an area considered a hive of Taliban and al-Qaida activity.

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