Al-Qaeda Commander Killed In Pakistan

More good news.

The BBC reports another top al-Qaeda commander has been eleminated.

Egyptian-born Abu Hamza Rabia, al-Qaeda's operational commander, was among five men killed in a raid in North Waziristan on Thursday. He is believed to have worked closely with Libyan Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the head of al-Qaeda's international operations wing, until al-Libbi's capture in May:

A Pakistani newspaper quotes local residents as saying they were killed in a missile attack on their house.

[. . .]

According to the report in Dawn, officials said the five militants were killed when an explosion destroyed their house.

But the newspaper said local tribal residents said the house was destroyed after missiles were fired from an unmanned "air vehicle" or drone.

Sounds like another Predator victory. As Austin Bay might put it, another al-Qaeda's zealot dies fighting American robots.

UPDATE: MSNBC reports that bringing Hamza Rabia to justice was a CIA operation

Local residents said that the men were killed by an unknown number of missiles fired by an unmanned Predator aircraft. The witnesses said that missile remnants bearing U.S. markings remain in the area. They also said they had heard six explosions, but it is uncertain how many of these were the result of missile attacks and how many may have been the result of the missiles detonating explosives inside the safehouse.

The U.S. government confirmed that a missile attack took place, but would not confirm that Rabia was killed.

[. . .]

Rabia was the target of another Predator attack on Nov. 5, according to local Pakistani officials. During that strike, in the village of Mosaki, eight people were killed in what is now described as an unsuccessful attempt to kill Rabia. Local officials have told NBC News that the dead included the wife and children of the al-Qaida leader.

MSNBC also provides more background about Rabia:

Rabia has been sought by both U.S. and Pakistani officials for more than two years. Pakistan has offered a $1 million reward for his capture. He is believed to have participated in the planning for two assassination attempts against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Dec. 14 and Dec. 25, 2003. At that time, Rabia was believed to be the chief deputy to Abu Faraj al-Libbi, al-Qaida's operational chief and the No. 3 man in the organization. In May, Pakistani security forces captured Abu Faraj and turned him over to the United States.

U.S. officials have said that Rabia succeeded Abu Faraj as operations chief. Rabia was brought into al-Qaida by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's No. 2. Like al-Zawahiri, Rabia is an Egyptian. U.S. officials have described him recently as "top-five al-Qaida" and, as one US official said on Friday, "killing him would be indeed a very big deal."

At Winds of Change, Dan Darling offers more about the significance of getting Rabia, as well as the capture of capture of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar and the suicide of Abu Omar al-Saif in Dagestan.

This is another significant victory in the War On Terror.

UPDATE II: The Washington Post calls the death of Rabia an advance in the struggle to locate and eliminate the network's leadership. But the post also points out that earlier this year, another member of al Qaeda, Haitham Yemeni, was killed by a Predator in North Waziristan.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Rabia Rabia suffered a slight leg wound in a similar attack on Nov. 5 that killed eight people, including his wife and children.