Secret CIA Strike Kills Chief, Lieutenant Of Al Qaeda In Pakistan

January 9, 2009 12:19 a.m. EST

Washington, DC (AHN) - A U.S. counter-terrorism official said Thursday the operations chief of Al Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed by missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal region on New Year's Day.

The unnamed official said Kenyan Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam alias Usama al-Kini, who is wanted by the FBI for the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan were killed when a building near Karikot, South Waziristan they were using for explosives training was hit by missiles fired by an unmanned plane. The secret strike was launched by the CIA.

The two were linked to suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the bombing of the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad in September that killed 53 people and the failed assassination attempt on the late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in October.