I just posted this on another thread- seems relevant to your’s as well..
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/
Did a U.S. Airstrike Get The Big Z?
Media reports describe another U.S. airstrike within Pakistan, targeting a home that was a suspected Taliban safe house with foreign fighters.
Bill Roggio notes, “One report indicates an “al Qaeda fugitive from Egypt” was among those killed, sparking rumors that Ayman al Zawahiri was the target of the strike.”
But before we break out the party hats, Roggio also notes, “several senior Egyptian members of al Qaeda are known to operate in Pakistan’s tribal areas. These include Abu Khabab al Masri, Abu Ubaidah al Masri, Abdul Rahman al Masri al Maghribi, and Sheikh Essa. Abu Khabab, Abu Ubaidah, and Maghribi were believed to have been killed in the January 2006 Damadola airstrike but the reports were false.”
Keep your fingers crossed.
UPDATE: Two interesting items from the Asia Times, if true. One, allegedly the Predator drone came from Peshawar Airfield, making this a joint Pakistan-NATO operation. Two, the building was allegedly a militant compound disguised as a madrassa.
Campaign angle in all this? Well, the Democrats have looked increasingly silly, and have taken flak from non-conservative, clear-eyed observers of the war in Iraq (like the Washington Post) for insisting that the war is lost, no matter how much progress is made on the ground in Iraq. Another key part of both Hillary and Obama’s playbooks is endlessly moaning, “we’ve forgotten the real war, we’re losing the war in Afghanistan, we’ve been distracted from al-Qaeda.” Democrats looked silly when they claimed the Iraq buildup was distracting from fighting al-Qaeda, just as the U.S. and Pakistan captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
02/29 12:39 PM
bout time - I suspicioned something like this was in the works what Musharraf kept saying - loudly - that they would NOT allow our forces to do anything in Paki - I thought: "Hmmm, wonder if he's giving the bad guys a false sense of security - the better to track and, ah, 'visit.?'
here’s the recent story of al-Zawahri lamenting the death of al-libi - let’s hope there’s someone now preparing the lament over over al-Zawahri
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/02/28/Slain_alQaida_leader_praised/