One Utah

Meet Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu al-Yazid, aka Sheikh Saeed. The 53-year-old Egyptian is al-Qaeda’s operational commander for Afghanistan, and may be the third highest ranking al-Qaeda leader, after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Al-Yazid just gave an interview to the Pakistani TV station Geo, in the Afghan province of Khost. It was the first interview given by a senior al-Qaeda figure since May 2002, when two key figures in the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, were questioned by a reporter for the al-Jazeera.

Al-Yazid has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, which may have actually been the work of Pakistani extremists allied with al-Qaeda. In the interview, he said al-Qaeda was behind the June bombing of the Danish embassy in Islamabad in which eight people died– all Muslims. He is also reported to have managed the finances for the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Time for a reality check. While Senator John McCain goes around claiming “we have succeeded” in defeating a few thousand Iraqi insurgents who called themselves “al-Qaeda in Iraq,” the real al-Qaeda is back to giving TV interviews.

UPDATE: Afghanistan war news: The Taliban captured a remote district in central Ghazni province yesterday, 125 miles southwest of Kabul. “Security forces abandoned the district center after Taliban attacked. They withdrew under lots of pressure,” interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said. “We’re working on a plan to retake the district.” Fighting continued in several other provinces as well.

UPDATE: Michael Scheuer has more about al-Yazid, and al Qaeda’s resurgence.

This entry was posted Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am and is filed under 4th Estate (Media), Afghanistan, John McCain, Terrorism, This Blog, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.