Word: damadola
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Islamist militants. A large number of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters retreated there from Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and the fugitives currently sheltering there are believed to include Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. Last January, a botched U.S. air strike in Damadola, two miles from Khar, was meant to take out al-Zawahiri; instead it got only his son-in-law, and some 16 civilians. Resentment over that attack is still running high, and many question why the Pakistani military would strike a madrassa, the sole educational opportunity available in the impoverished...
...Waziristan, based on intelligence from agents on the ground, reportedly killed Hamza Rabia, an Egyptian believed to have been the latest occupant of al-Qaeda's No. 3 spot. Then, in early January, the U.S. and Pakistan seized on the chance to bag even bigger prey. Details of the Damadola operation are beginning to emerge, and they provide a tantalizing glimpse into the intensifying hunt for bin Laden. A Peshawar-based official told TIME that in the past month, Pakistani-intelligence field agents had been tracking two groups of men who had crossed the border from Afghanistan into Bajaur...
...infiltrators sheltered in a small compound of three houses just outside Damadola. Shortly after 3 a.m. on Jan. 13, locals say, several missiles fired from Predators crashed into the compound, practically obliterating the houses. According to news reports, Pakistani officials initially said it was possible that al-Zawahiri had been killed, then backed away from the claim. Villagers told journalists who arrived at the scene that 18 civilians had died (the number was later revised down to 13); they denied that any bodies had been removed or that any foreigners had been in the compound. But some Pakistani intelligence officials...
...Taliban has begun to impose its extreme brand of Islamic law, including a ban on music and the Internet, and the summary execution of criminals. Some counterterrorism experts, though, are cautiously optimistic that the turmoil in al-Qaeda's high command they hope was caused by the strike in Damadola may force its leaders to expose themselves. "You got to presume that all the al-Qaeda guys are asking each other who got smoked," says a former U.S. intelligence official. "When they stick their heads up to see who got whacked, it presents opportunities...
STRUCK DOWN? Pakistani officials said last week that the Jan. 13 U.S. air strike on the village of Damadola may have killed as many as four al-Qaeda operatives. Pakistan had previously claimed that the strike, which killed 18 civilians and provoked anti-U.S. protests, had missed its intended target, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy. Among the operatives believed to have been killed were ABU KHABAB AL-MASRI, left, a top bombmaker who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say that the strike also killed ABU UBAYDA AL-MISRI, an al-Qaeda commander...