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A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 26 october 2020
Afghanistan claims killing an al-Qaida leader wanted by FBI

By RAHIM FAIEZ, TAMEEM in 2018 in an audio state-
AKHGAR and JON GAM- ment in which he mocked
BRELL Associated Press President Donald Trump
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — and those who preceded
Afghanistan claimed Sun- him the White House.
day it killed a top al-Qaida "I name him 'Donald T-Ram-
propagandist on an FBI bo' who tries to copy the
most-wanted list during an famous American fictional
operation in the country's character 'Rambo,' who,
east, showing the militant with only a Kalashnikov,
group's continued pres- was able to liberate the
ence there as U.S. forces entire Afghanistan from the
work to withdraw from Soviet Union," al-Rauf said,
America's longest-running according to the SITE Intel-
war amid continued blood- ligence Group.
shed. The Afghan presidential
The reported death of palace described al-Rauf
Husam Abd al-Rauf, also as "al-Qaida's leader for
known by the nom de the Indian subcontinent."
guerre Abu Muhsin al- The National Directorate of
Masri, follows weeks of vio- Security referred to al-Rauf
lence, including a suicide as having a close relation-
bombing by the Islamic ship with both bin Laden
State group Saturday at and Ayman al-Zawahiri, an
an education center near Egyptian now leading al-
Kabul that killed 24 people. Qaida. It said he lived for
Meanwhile, the Afghan years in hideouts in both Af-
government continues to ghanistan and neighboring
fight Taliban militants even Pakistan.
as peace talks in Qatar be- Meanwhile Sunday, au-
tween the two sides take thorities raised the death
place for the first time. toll in Saturday's suicide at-
The violence and al-Rauf's tack on an education cen-
reported killing threaten the ter near Kabul. The suicide
face-to-face peace talks bomber, who was stopped
and risk plunging this nation This image released by the FBI shows the wanted poster of al-Qaida propagandist Husam Abd by guards from entering
beset by decades of war al-Rauf, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Muhsin al-Masri. Associated Press. the center, killed 24 and
into further instability. They wounded 57 — many of
also complicate America's Andar district some 150 kilo- the Taliban had been offer- and violence and facilitate them young students.
efforts to withdraw, 19 meters (90 miles) southwest ing shelter and protection a dignified and sustainable The Islamic State group's lo-
years after it led an inva- of Kabul, two government to al-Rauf. The Taliban told peace in the country." cal affiliate claimed credit
sion targeting the Taliban officials said. the AP on Sunday they are Federal prosecutors in the for the attack in a heav-
for hosting al-Qaida leader Amanullah Kamrani, the investigating the incident. Southern District of New ily Shiite neighborhood of
Osama bin Laden after the deputy head of Ghazni's If the Taliban had provided York filed a warrant for al- western Kabul's Dasht-e-
Sept. 11 attacks. provincial council, told The protection for al-Rauf that Rauf's arrest in December Barchi neighborhood, say-
Details over the raid that led Associated Press that Af- would violate the terms 2018, accusing him of pro- ing one of its fighters used
to al-Rauf's alleged death ghan special forces led by of its Feb. 29 deal with the viding support to a foreign a suicide bomb vest in the
remained murky hours after the intelligence agency U.S. that jump-started the terrorist organization and assault. The Sunni extremists
Afghanistan's intelligence raided Kunsaf, which he Afghan peace talks. That being part of a conspiracy of the Islamic State group
service, the National Direc- described as being un- deal saw the Taliban agree to kill U.S. citizens. The FBI view Shiites as heretics and
torate of Security, claimed der Taliban control. On "not to cooperate with put him on the bureau's have repeatedly targeted
on Twitter to have killed the village's outskirts, they groups or individuals threat- "Most Wanted Terrorists" list, them in attacks in Afghani-
him in Ghazni province. It stormed an isolated home ening the security of the which now includes 27 oth- stan, even after losing the
said one of its members and killed seven suspected United States and its allies," ers. territory of their so-called
was also killed in the opera- militants in a firefight, in- which includes al-Qaida. The red-headed al-Rauf, caliphate once spanning
tion. The agency released cluding al-Rauf, Kamrani The Afghan presidential believed to be born in parts of Iraq and Syria.
a photograph late Sunday said. palace issued a statement 1958, is an Egyptian nation- Mourners later gathered
afternoon it described as Neither Kamrani nor the in- Sunday saying al-Rauf had al. An al-Qaida-issued bi- on a dusty hillside to bury
al-Rauf's corpse, which re- telligence agency offered been killed and warning it ography said he joined the the youths killed by the
sembled FBI images of the details on how authorities "proved that the threat of mujaheddin fighters who bombing. An Afghan flag
militant leader. identified al-Rauf, nor how terrorism and the Taliban's battled the Soviet Union in whipped in the wind above
Al-Qaida did not imme- they came to suspect he links to terrorist networks are 1986. their heads as they prayed
diately acknowledge al- was in the village. still in place." He has served for years as for, buried and quietly re-
Rauf's reported death. The Wahidullah Jumazada, a "The Taliban should prove al-Qaida's media chief, of- membered those lost.
FBI declined to comment. spokesman for the provin- to the people, the govern- fering audio statements "They had no guns on
The U.S. military's Central cial governor in Ghazni, ment of Afghanistan and and written articles back- hand," said one mourner
Command and NATO did said Afghan forces killed six the international com- ing the militant group. After named Azizullah, who like
not respond to requests for suspected militants in the munity that they are end- years of remaining silent fol- many Afghans uses one
comment. raid, without acknowledg- ing their links with terrorist lowing the acknowledge- name. "They wanted to
The Afghan raid happened ing al-Rauf had been killed. groups, including al-Qa- ment of Taliban founder study and have a bright fu-
last week in Kunsaf, a vil- Kamrani alleged, without ida," the statement said. Mullah Mohammad Omar's ture for themselves and the
lage in Ghazni province's providing evidence, that They "should stop the war death, al-Rauf reemerged country." q