#5 Ilyas Kashmiri
Ilyas Kashmiri, a key al-Qaeda strategist, was killed in a 2011 strike in South Waziristan, Pakistan. Reports on Kashmiri alleged that he trained mujahideen to counter Soviet forces in 1980s Afghanistan and that he was tabbed as a possible successor to Osama Bin Laden, after his death.
Kashmiri built his credentials while leading a militant group in Pakistan, running a training camp and planning attacks against targets in India and Europe.
#4 Abu Rahman al-Tunisi
Abu Rahman al-Tunisi functioned as a sort of ISIS executive officer, coordinating the transfer of information, people, and weapons. His death and the death of two other “senior” extortionists is impairing ISIS’s ability to extort money from a civilian population, which served as a major source of revenue for the group.
#3 Qari Yasin
The Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan) confirmed in a statement that Qari Muhammad Yasin, a senior al-Qaeda military commander, was killed in a US drone strike. The bombing took place in the Laman area of the eastern Paktika province. The statement confirming Yasin’s demise was attributed to Mohammad Khurasani, the Pakistani Taliban spokesman.
Khurasani describes Yasin as a “close assistant” of the Pakistani Taliban and a “trainer of Mujahideen.” He claims that three of Yasin’s “companions” were also killed in the US drone strike. Khurasani confirms that Yasin “was one of the closest companions of Shaheed Amjad Farooqi, a famous personality of Pakistan Jihad.”
#2 Baytullah Mahsud
Mahsud was a founding militant of the Pakistani Taliban, which U.S. intelligence suggested could have been behind the 2007 assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Despite his small stature, it is suggested that he had commanded as many as 20,000 fighters and provided refuge for Afghani Taliban members after the 2001 U.S. invasion. His death was a big deal to US intelligence and counterterrorism operations in the region.
#1 Osama bin Laden
So you probably know this one….
Osama bin Laden, the founder and head of the radical Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda, was fatally shot in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 am PKT(20:00 UTC, May 1) by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (also known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six). The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was carried out in a CIA-led operation, with Joint Special Operations Command, commonly known as JSOC, coordinating the Special Mission Units involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six, participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), aka “Night Stalkers,” and operators from the CIA’s Special Activities Division, which recruits heavily from former JSOC Special Mission Units. The operation ended a nearly 10-year search for bin Laden, following his role in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
The raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was launched from Afghanistan. U.S. military officials said that after the raid, U.S. forces took bin Laden’s body to Afghanistan for identification, then buried him at sea within 24 hours of his death in accordance with Islamic tradition. We hope the sharks enjoyed his frail body as his soul made its way to hell.
