Lashkar al-Zil Commander Killed in December – On January 4th, Asia Times Online’s Taliban-insider correspondent, Syed Saleem Shahzad reported that Lashkar al-Zil hatched the suicide bomber infiltration of the CIA’s Khost FOB Chapman. According to Shahzad, after weeks of Pakistan-based prep, the martyr plan was carried out “after Lashkar al-Zil's intelligence outfit informed its chief commander, Ilyas Kashmiri, the CIA planned to broaden the monitoring of the possible movement of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.” Shahzad relates that the CIA’s obsession with hitting al-Zawahiri led to the blunder of exposing the intelligence facility to Brigade 313, “led by Ilyas Kashmiri” and comprised of “jihadis with extensive experience in Pakistan's Kashmir struggle with India.”

According to The Long War Journal, “The Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, is the successor to al Qaeda’s notorious Brigade 055, the military formation that fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan from 1996-2002.” Shahzad clarifies this understanding, stating “Lashkar al-Zil comprises the Pakistani Taliban, 313 Brigade, the Afghan Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan and former Iraqi Republican Guards.”

The Shahzad report was problematic to Western counter-terrorism analysts, who understood that the chief of Lashkar al-Zil was a Libyan national named Abdullah Said al Libi, a terror leader who rose to power following a late 2008 CIA drone strike in South Waziristan, Pakistan which killed Lashkar al-Zil’s chief commander Khalid Habib in Baitullah Mehsud controlled territory. The natural question, then, is what happened to Abdullah Said al Libi?

Demonstrating the confusion as to Ilyas Kashmiri’s position in Lashkar al-Zil, the United States, on January 6th, accused Kashmiri of coordinating the Chapman attack and petitioned the Pak government to arrest and extradite Kashmiri, who was referred to as “Commander Ilyas Kashmiri, the fugitive chief of the Azad Kashmir chapter of the pro-Kashmir Jihadi group, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI).” 

On January 7th, the al Libi question was answered by Al Qaeda, when Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan, said that Abdullah Said al Libi was killed in a US airstrike in Pakistan. Yazid also confirmed that Saleh al Somali, al Qaeda's former external operations chief, was also killed in a US attack. A US intelligence official told The Long War Journal "Al Libi's death is significant, but there is little doubt he has been replaced by perhaps the most capable military commander in al Qaeda's stable." In this frame, Shahzad notes that “Under the command of Ilyas Kashmiri, [the Lashkar al-Zil] intelligence network's coordination with its special guerrilla action force has changed the dynamics of the Afghan war theater.”  With an estimated force of between 8,000 and 12,000 fighters now under Kashmiri’s unique style of jihadi command, the death of Abdullah Said al Libi has proved fortuitous to al Qaeda.

By January 8th, US intelligence placed the death of Abdullah Said al Libi in the Datta Khel area drone swarm attack of December 17, 2009, which reportedly killed Zuhaib al Zahibi, a “general officer-equivalent” in Lashkar al-Zil. According to US intelligence officials speaking with Bill Roggio’s team, the December 17 drone strikes in Datta Khel targeted “a Lashkar al Zil command complex," and killed six al Qaeda operatives, and nine Haqqani network fighters. Remarking on the death of Abdullah Said al Libi to The Long War Journal, one US intelligence official said, "We wouldn't be surprised if the top commander was present during the strike.”

Sources: Asia Times Online, LWJ, The News 
 

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An excerpt from The AfPak Gazette - Winter 2010, Volume 4...to be released Friday, January 29, 2009.