Damadola update
It seems the Pakistani authorities are as "anxious":http://pakistantimes.net/national23010601.htm to find the secreted bodies as Al Qaeda was to hide them. bq. DAMADOLA: Pakistani authorities arrested a suspected militant with links to al—Qaida operatives that were targeted in U.S. attack last week, an official said Sunday. bq. The man, who was not identified, was picked up in Damadola village, the remote hamlet where U.S. missiles struck Jan. 13, the security official said on condition of anonymity according to official policy. bq. The man arrested was a relative of Faqir Mohammed, the pro—Taliban cleric intelligence officials believe is responsible for removing and concealing the bodies of the extremists following the airstrike, the official said. bq. The official refused to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, says a foreign news agency. Clarice Feldman 1 23 06 UPDATE: Dan Darling, who's been watching these things longer and more intensely than I have "says":http://www.regnumcrucis.blogspot.com/2006_01_15_regnumcrucis_archive.html#113764992010408132 of the Damadola air strike: bq. I have a Weekly Standard piece on the death of Abu Khabab coming out pretty soon, but for those who are interested here are all of the al—Qaeda leaders who have been listed as being killed in Damadola at present according to media reports: bq. Abu Khabab al—Masri (WMD committee head); Abd Rahman al—Masri al—Maghribi (al—Zawahiri's son—in—law, al—Qaeda commander); Abu Ubeidah al—Masri (Kunar operations chief); Marwan al—Suri (Waziristan operations chief); Khalid Habib (southeastern Afghanistan commander); Abdul Hadi al—Iraqi (southwestern Afghanistan commander); bq. Add to that Maulana Faqir Mohammed and Maulana Liaqat (local leaders of the Tehrik Nifaz—e—Sha'riah Mohammed, apparently) and it looks like that was quite a dinner they had planned. I would have settled for nailing Khabab alone, but this looks like the biggest single decapitation strike on the al—Qaeda leadership since Tora Bora.[/quote] Clarice Feldman