Libi was out to kill Musharraf, Bush: report
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: A New York tabloid has claimed that Abu Faraj Al-Libi, believed to be Osama Bin Laden’s top operational commander, was solely focused on killing President George Bush and President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
In an exclusive report, Daily News said Al-Libi’s capture had apparently thwarted plots to assassinate “the two partners in the global war on terror”. The source of the story, the newspaper said, is a “senior Pakistani official, whose information was corroborated by two senior US counter-terrorism officials.” None of the officials was identified.
“Al-Libi had one mission: Kill Bush and Musharraf,” the Pakistani official told the tabloid. “He wanted to kill Bush in the White House, preferably,” he added. “It was clearly something they wanted to do. There’s no question about that. It’s the holy grail of jihad,” a senior US counter-terrorism official confirmed to the paper.
Al-Libi organised several failed assassination attempts on Gen Musharraf before he was nabbed, officials have said. But the plot by Al Qaeda’s international operations chief to send assassins to the US to kill Bush had not been reported before.
www.dailytimes.com.pk |
