Al-Qaida: Chemical Weapons Expert Dead

By ANNA JOHNSON

By Anna Johnson

The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt

Al-Qaida confirmed Sunday the death of a top commander accused of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 Norfolk-based sailors on the destroyer Cole eight years ago.

Abu Khabab al-Masri, who had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States, is believed to have been killed in an airstrike apparently launched by the United States in Pakistan last week.

An al-Qaida statement posted on the Internet said al-Masri and three other top figures were killed and warned of vengeance for their deaths. It did not say when, where or how they died but said some of their children were killed along with them.

Pakistani authorities have said they believe al-Masri is one of six people killed in an airstrike on July 28 on a compound in South Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border.

The U.S. military has not confirmed it was behind the missile strike. But similar U.S. attacks are periodically launched on militant targets in the region.

Both Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the rugged and lawless region along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The U.S. Justice Department has accused al-Masri, an Egyptian militant whose real name is Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, of training terrorists to use poisons and explosives.

He is also believed to have helped run al-Qaida’s Darunta training camp in eastern Afghanistan until the camp was abandoned amid the 2001 U.S. invasion of the country. There he is thought to have conducted experiments in chemical and biological weapons, testing materials on dogs.

The al-Qaida statement called al-Masri and the other three slain commanders “a group of heroes” and warned of retaliation.

“As Abu Khabab has gone, he left behind, with God’s grace, a generation of faithful students who will make you suffer the worst torture and avenge him and his brothers, ” it said.

revisiting a tragedy

Abu Khabab al-Masri was accused of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 Norfolk-based sailors on the destroyer Cole eight years ago.

Originally published by BY ANNA JOHNSON.

(c) 2008 Virginian – Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.