The ghost of Ilyas Kashmiri has a habit of returning

There is a sense of dejavu to the reports about Ilyas Kashmiri’s death in an American predator strike in South Waziristan. In the past, the al-Qaeda-linked fugitive jehadi had been pronounced dead twice in a short span of one week — on September 7 and September 14, 2009 — in American drone attacks.

That Ilyas Kashmiri has actually been killed on Friday has not yet been confirmed officially either by Islamabad or Washington and the only confirmation of his death has come from a statement faxed by the jehadi group he was heading — Brigade 313 of Harkatul Jehadul Islami — stating he was ‘martyred’ in the strike at 11:15 pm on Friday in the South Waziristan tribal region. The statement also vowed revenge against the United States.

Ilyas Kashmiri is said to be one of nine militants killed in a drone strike that levelled a compound in the Gowakha village in the Wana area of South Waziristan. The attack was conducted in an area being controlled by Mullah Nazir, an al Qaeda-linked Taliban commander who is considered a “good Taliban” leader by the Pakistani military establishment because he does not attack the state. But sources in the Pakistani security establishment are still unsure about Kashmiri’s death and believe the HUJI statement about his killing might be an attempt to deceive those who wanted to hunt him down. 

The importance of Kashmiri in the al Qaeda network can be gauged from the fact that he is undoubtedly the only Pakistani jehadi to have risen in the al Qaeda ranks to the coveted slot of the terror group’s chief military strategist, now serving as the second-in-command to Saif Al Adal, who was made the interim chief of al Qaeda following bin Laden’s death.