(Previous Incident Code: Ob302 )

Senior al Qaeda figure Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman al-Hussainan, aka Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti, was killed when CIA drones attacked a house.

He was reportedly ‘a top member of al Qaeda’s religious committee‘. While some reports referred to a pre-dawn raid, al Qaeda later claimed that al Hussainan died ‘while having dinner after a day of fasting.’

Reports said that up to eleven people died, ‘mostly Arab nationals.’ A Taliban commander in the area said that the family of Yahya al-Libi was also living at the location. Al Libi was killed in a drone strike on June 4 2012 – al Hussainan reportedly replaced him.

Speaking to the New York Times, a senior Pakistani intelligence official ‘played down speculation that [al Hussainan]…had been viewed as a likely successor to al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.’ A militant by the name of Abdur Rehman al Maghbiri was most likely to be the next leader of al Qaeda, the official added. Al Hussainan’s wife was also killed and between one and six of his daughters were also injured.

The News reported that one seriously injured girl was taken to hospital in Mir Ali, “It was a terrible scene. The minor girl was seriously injured but she was telling people that her father has been martyred in the attack.’

The house – allegedly a ‘militant hideout‘ belonging to local tribesman Shaheedullah Dawar – was reportedly destroyed by two missiles in the pre-dawn attack. Parts of the compound were ‘razed to the ground’ and caught fire, reportedly delaying rescue work. Alleged militants in the area moved the dead and injured to an unknown location. This was the first known strike on North Waziristan for 43 days, with US drones seen flying ‘before and even after the attack’, according to local tribal elder Malik Mumtaz.

Al Qaeda quickly acknowledged al Husssainan’s death, stating, “We celebrate to you the news of the martyrdom of the working scholar Shaykh Khalid al-Hussainan (Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti) while eating his Suhoor (dawn time) meal, and we ask Allah to accept him in paradise.”

Richard Olson, Washington’s newly installed ambassador in Islamabad, met Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf after this latest strike. Ashraf expressed ‘his concern over the drone attacks‘. He told the ambassador ‘[the strikes] are counterproductive and we need to find alternative means to eliminate terrorists’. Olson said he would convey Pakistan’s concerns to Washington.