Kabul: Six Americans and two other foreigners on a medical mission were shot and killed by the Taliban who ambushed their vehicles in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, a charity said Saturday.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Pakistan that they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity."
Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, said the eight-member medical team, which also included one German, one Briton and two Afghan interpreters, was driving to Kabul from an eye clinic in northeastern Nuristan province when they were killed in Badakhshan province to the north.
The group had decided to head through Badakhshan to return to the capital because they thought that would be the safest route, Frans said.
"This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966," according to a statement released by the non-profit Christian organization. "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year."
Provincial police chief Gen Agha Noor Kemtuz said the survivor told him that the group was surrounded by gunmen and then attacked. www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=25179
2. NATO soldier killed in Afghan blast
KABUL – A bomb attack killed a NATO soldier in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, the military said. The NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not reveal the nationality of the soldier, in keeping with policy.
The latest death brings to 414 the number of foreign troops killed in the Afghan war so far this year, compared to 520 for all of 2009, according to an AFP tally based on one kept by the icasualties.org website. NATO and the US have close to 150,000 troops in the country as part of a major build-up designed to reverse Taliban momentum and quicken an end to the militia’s nearly nine-year insurgency. http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online//Politics/07-Aug-2010/Nato-soldier-killed-in-Afghan-blast
3. New al Qaeda leader lived 15 years in U.S.
By Curt Anderson in The Washington Times, Aug 6
MIAMI — A suspected al Qaeda operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network’s global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks.
Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al Qaeda’s senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, Mr. LeBlanc said.
Shukrijumah and two other leaders were part of an "external operations council" that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed — his former boss.
"He’s making operational decisions is the best way to put it," said Mr. LeBlanc, the FBI’s lead Shukrijumah investigator. "He’s looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss."
The FBI has been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003. He is thought to be the only al Qaeda leader to have once held permanent U.S. resident status, or a green card.
Shukrijumah was named earlier this year in a federal indictment as a conspirator in the case against three men accused of plotting suicide bomb attacks on New York’s subway system in 2009. The indictment marked the first criminal charges against Shukrijumah, who previously had been sought only as a witness.
Shukrijumah, who trained at al Qaeda’s Afghanistan camps in the late 1990s, was labeled a "clear and present danger" to the U.S. in 2004 by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture and the FBI also is releasing an age-enhanced photo of what he may look like today. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/6/new-al-qaeda-leader-lived-15-years-us/print//
