At the Counterterrorism Blog, Evan Kohlmann reports the death of another top tier al-Qaeda commander. Abu Omar Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Saif also known as the "Imam of the Chechen mujahideen"the "Imam of the Chechen mujahideen," has been killed during a Russian counterterrorism operation in Dagestan:
Unable to escape after Russian soldiers backed by helicopters surrounded his temporary hideout, Abu Omar allegedly detonated an explosive device he was carrying and collapsed the building on top of himself.
According to Kohlmann, Abu Omar was an original founder of the Arab-Afghan mujahideen movement in Chechnya and was named by Russian officials as a suspect in numerous terrorist attacks, including the Moscow theater siege and the Beslan school hostage massacre.
As James Joyner posted at Outside the Beltway, al-Qaeda has more "senior leaders" than you can shake a stick, but killing them is good on general principles. I can't argue with that.
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