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Al-Qaeda Weapons and Poison Expert Killed - Pakistan

Posted: 29 Jul 2008 02:01 AM CDT

Al-Qaeda’s top expert on chemical and biological weapons is believed to have been killed in a suspected US missile strike in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas on Monday, security officials said.

Egyptian militant Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a $ 5 million bounty on his head. He allegedly trained hundreds of extremists at camps in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

Both the US-led coalition and a separate NATO force in Afghanistan have said they were not involved in the missile strike. However, the US Central Intelligence Agency is also known to operate drones in the region.

Officials earlier said that three Arab militants and three Pakistani boys were killed when missiles fired by a suspected US drone hit a house attached to a mosque in the South Waziristan tribal district.

“We believe he was killed in this strike,” a senior intelligence official based in the northwestern city of Peshawar said on condition of anonymity.

“It was his hideout and information that has been shared with us says he was targeted in this strike.”

Umar’s wife and children were believed to have been injured in the attack, Pakistani officials said. Residents said the victims of the missile strike were hastily buried in the hours after the attack.

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al Qaeda Wants Saudi King killed Over Interfaith Call

Posted: 29 Jul 2008 02:01 AM CDT

A key al Qaeda figure has said Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah should be killed for calling for an interfaith dialogue that amounted to joining a Western crusade against Islam.

“Hurrying to kill this wanton tyrant (King Abdullah) who has announced himself to be a leader of atheism would be among the most pious acts,” Abu Yahya al-Libi said in a video posted on Monday on Islamist websites often used by al Qaeda supporters.

The message followed a groundbreaking Saudi-sponsored interfaith conference in Spain this month in which King Abdullah called on followers of the world’s major faiths to turn away from extremism and seek reconciliation.

“The call for a rapprochement of religions issued by the (Saudi) tyrant … is an integral part of the overt Crusader war against Islam and Muslims,” Libi said. He likened King Abdullah to a “corrupting fountainhead” that had to be buried.

“This in fact is a call to turn one’s back on Islam and … to look for commonalities with Judaism and Christianity so whatever the three agree on would become the new modern religion which would be allowed to be propagated,” Libi said.

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High-Profile Events Put U.S. in Period of Heightened Alert ‘POHA’ for Terrorism

Posted: 28 Jul 2008 09:15 AM CDT

Government officials have been quietly stepping up counterterror efforts out of a growing concern that al Qaeda or similar organizations might try to capitalize on the spate of extremely high-profile events in the coming months, sources tell ABC News.

Security experts point to next month’s Olympics as evidence that high-profile events attract threats of terrorism, like the one issued this past weekend by a Chinese Muslim minority group that warned of its intent to attack the Games.

Anti-terror officials in the U.S. cite this summer and fall’s lineup of two major political parties’ conventions, November’s general election and months of transition into a new presidential administration as cause for heightened awareness and action.

This is what the Department of Homeland Security is quietly declaring a Period of Heightened Alert, or POHA, a time frame when terrorists may have more incentive to attack.

According to drafts of government memos described to ABC News, the period would run roughly from this August through July 2009.

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