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Here is the Saturday, June 4, 2011 story from DAWN:
Harkatul Jihad al-Islami confirms Ilyas Kashmiri killedAgencies
(4 hours ago) Today
This file photo taken on July 11, 2001 shows Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, commander-in-chief of the Kashmiri militant group Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, addressing a press conference in Islamabad. — Photo by AFP
ISLAMABAD: A US drone attack that killed nine militants in South Waziristan targeted and killed top al Qaeda commander and chief of the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HJI) Ilyas Kashmiri, local officials said Saturday.
Moreover, an HJI spokesman confirmed that Kashmiri had been killed, DawnNews reported.
Kashmiri, 47, was considered one of the most feared operational commanders of the network that Osama bin Laden founded and has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks on western targets, as well as in India and Pakistan.
The United States had put out a $5 million reward — the maximum for any most-wanted target — for any information that might help locate him.
Pakistani officials said nine militants were killed in the US missile strike on Friday at a compound in the Ghwakhwa area of South Waziristan, a stronghold of al-Qaeda-allied Taliban despite a sweeping Pakistani offensive in 2009.
“Nine militants were killed in last night’s drone strike,” a security official in Peshawar told AFP.
“All those killed were Kashmiri’s fighters but informers told us that the dead bodies were badly mutilated and that it was not possible to recognise any of them,” the official added.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, asked during a visit to the city of Multan about reports of Kashmiri’s killing, said he had “no information”.
Regional and anti-terrorism experts say that Kashmiri was one of al Qaeda’s main operational commanders.
He was blamed for multiple attacks in Pakistan, including the recent May 22 siege on a naval air base in Karachi.
Counter-terrorism officials believe he was the main coordinator of a terror plot targeting Britain, France, Germany and the United States, which was apparently in the early stages when detected by intelligence agencies in 2010.
Two intelligence officials in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, also confirmed that those killed on Friday were all Kashmiri’s fighters.