A recent statement released by al Qaeda’s spokesman for Pakistan indicated that Ilyas Kashmiri was indeed killed, most likely last year in a US drone strike in South Waziristan Agency (SWA).
Ustad Ahmad Farooq, the al Qaeda spokesman, mentioned Kashmiri along with Baitullah Mehsud, Ibn Amin, and Badr Mansour, three top commanders based in FATA, who have been killed in drone strikes in the past several years.
Farooq used the term “may Allah have mercy on all of them,” which is reserved for jihadists who have been killed in battle or died of natural causes. “Pakistani Jihadi leaders like Emir Baitullah Mehsud, Commander Ilyas Kashmiri, Commander Binyamin and Commander Badr Mansoor (may Allah have mercy on all of them) are targeted in drone attacks…” Farooq said in a statement that was released on jihadist websites on March 13 and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. “[A]nd similarly the son of the respected Afghan leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, his important comrades, and even his family members including women and children are also targeted in drone strikes; and the information for both is provided by Pakistani secret agencies: where then is this division?” Farooq continued, referring to Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has been the target of multiple US drone strikes. Farooq’s statement is “the most convincing piece of evidence to emerge from al Qaeda that indicates he (Kashmiri) was indeed killed,” a US intelligence official who tracks the terror group in Pakistan and Afghanistan told The Long War Journal.
