Pakistani al Qaeda leader killed in March Predator strike
LONG WAR JOURNAL
By Bill Roggio
Slain Al Qaeda leader Arshad Waheed trains in military tactics at an al Qaeda camp. Image from an al Qaeda eulogy videotape produced by As Sahab.
A US Predator airstrike launched against a Taliban and al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province last March killed a mid-level al Qaeda leader.
Dr. Arshad Waheed, who is also known as Sheikh Moaz, was killed in the March 15 airstrike in the settled district of Bannu. His death was announced on a 40 minute videotape produced by As Sahab, al Qaeda's propaganda arm. On the tape, Waheed was eulogized by Abu Mustafa Yazid, al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan, and al Qaeda operative known as Abu Omar Mahmood.
Waheed was a Pakistani citizen from the city of southern city of Karachi in Sindh province. Prior to joining al Qaeda, he earned a medical degree and specialized in neurosurgery.
Waheed moved to Kandahar after the US invasion of Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks in the US. He traveled to Kandahar to "help heal the wounded mujahedeen," according to the eulogy.
After the US and the Afghan Northern Alliance ousted the Taliban from power, Waheed returned to Pakistan. Back in Pakistan, he urged his countrymen to wage jihad against the West and criticized them for seeking western passports instead of fighting. He also criticized Pakistani religious political parties for seeking to gain power through democratic means.
The video shows images of Waheed training with al Qaeda fighters in military tactics and praying along side them. Audiotapes of his speeches and lectures to other terrorists are also played. The narrator described Waheed as "unparalleled in faith, love for his religion, and belief in Allah."
Waheed was a mid-level al Qaeda leader responsible for training members of al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army in military tactics as well as training fighters in first aid and medical techniques, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.
Waheed was killed in an attack by "Pakistani and American planes," the al Qaeda narrator reported. He was among five people killed in the March 15 strike in Bannu. Two Arab al Qaeda members and two Pakistani Taliban fighters were killed in the attack. The strike was so devastating that his "body was not even found to be intact," according to the narrator.
Predator campaign comes under fire in the US
The US Predator campaign inside Pakistan's tribal areas has recently come under fire from within the US. In a recent op-ed in The New York Times, counterinsurgency experts David Kilkullen and Andrew Exum advocated ending the strikes, claiming the attacks counterproductive, create enemies, and hurt the Pakistani military's capacity to conduct counterinsurgency operations against the Taliban entrenched in the Northwest Frontier Province.
But the Pakistani military is not conducting counterinsurgency operations anywhere near the tribal areas where the Predator campaign is focused. The entire tribal areas, particularly North and South Waziristan, Mohmand, Khyber, Kurram, and Arakzai, have been ceded to the Taliban, who allow al Qaeda to run camps in their midst. Large areas of the Northwest Frontier province are also under Taliban control or heavy Taliban influence.
Even in Swat, where the Pakistani military is battling the Taliban, the effort is considered "counterproductive to counterinsurgency," a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. The Pakistani Army's use of "scorched earth tactics of leveling entire villages" has led to more than 2.2 million internally displaced persons who have fled the fighting. The military has also signaled it seeks a quick end to the Swat operation.
The Pakistani military's senior most commander has stated it has very little use for counterinsurgency operations to defeat the Taliban. During a briefing over the weekend, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani said his troops have no need of additional training from outside the country. "Therefore, except for very specialized weapons and equipment, high technology, no generalized foreign training is required," Kiyani said.
Yesterday, CIA Director Leon Panetta defended the Predator campaign during a speech at the Pacific Council on International Policy. "Very frankly, it's the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the al Qaeda leadership," Panetta said. |
