LAHORE: The current spike in the American drone attacks in the
Pakistan tribal belt bordering Afghanistan is ostensibly meant to
target the leadership of two North Waziristan-based militant groups
which are training ‘white jehadis’ and dispatching them to Europe for
carrying out commando-style raids in Britain, France and Germany –
similar to the 26/11 terrorist attacks in the Indian commercial
capital of Mumbai, that killed 166 people.
According to well-informed security officials in Rawalpindi, most of
the drone strikes carried out by the US drones between September 1 and
December, 2010 were aimed at eliminating the fugitive leaders of the
Islamic Jehad Group and the Islamic Army of Great Britain, who are
reportedly headquartered in North Waziristan. Sources say the upsurge
in the drone attacks – over two dozen was prompted by the unearthing
of a terror plot by Western intelligence agencies. As per the
intelligence information, dozens of white militants from several
European countries have been trained by their fellow jehadis in North
Waziristan to use firearms as well as explosives so that they can
launch random shooting sprees in Britain, France and Germany – three
key American allies in the war against terror. The discovery of the
plot led to a surge in US drone strikes in a bid to disrupt the
preparations of the white militants based in Waziristan.
Sources say during his recent visit to Pakistan, the CIA Chief Leon
Panetta snappily demanded from the government as well as the military
leadership full cooperation in uprooting the Europe terror plot, more
intelligence sharing and greater operational space within Pakistan to
preempt future threats. The two-day visit came in the backdrop of an
unprecedented increase in drone strikes in North Waziristan, repeated
aerial incursions into the Pakistani tribal areas by NATO forces and
revelation of a terror plot being hatched in the region to attack
European cities.
An outline of the information pertaining to the European plot was
shared with the Pakistani civilian and military leadership as per
which the plot for Mumbai-style attacks in Europe was hatched jointly
by the North Waziristan-based leadership of al-Qaeda, the Islamic
Jehad Group, the Islamic Army of Great Britain and the Haqqani
Network. The CIA chief had reached Pakistan on September 28, after the
American drones had carried out 25th attack of the month, the highest
number of predator strikes in a single month since 2004.
Hardly three days after the CIA Chief Leon Panetta left Pakistan, an
American drone attack [on October 4, 2010]killed several wanted white
militants in the Datta Khel area North Waziristan, including Abdul
Jabbar, a British national of Pakistani origin, who was married to a
British wife. He was the chief of the Islamic Army of Great Britain
and a key member of the cell which was assigned to carry out
Mumbai-like terror assaults against targets in major European cities.
Originally coming from the Jhelum district of Punjab, Abdul Jabbar had
earlier survived a drone strike on September 8, 2010, targeting a
militant training camp being run by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a commander
allied with the Haqqani Network.
Those killed in the same attack were two German jehadis who were known
in the area with their Islamic names of Imran and Shahab. However,
Jabbar’s younger brother, who is also a key leader in the lslamic Army
of Great Britain, seems to have survived the October 4, 2010 drone
hit. The two brothers had been tracked for almost a year in North
Waziristan along with several German citizens who were also involved
with the al-Qaeda-linked European terror plot.
According to the information shared by American intelligence sleuths
with their Pakistan counterparts, Abdul Jabbar, Imran and Shahab had
been making phone calls to London and Germany to their contacts in a
bid to set off the terror plot by finding accomplices in Europe. The
British and German jehadis used to talk about facilitators and
logistics they needed in Europe to execute their terror attacks.
Intelligence on the European plot had first emerged following the June
22, 2010 arrest of a 27-year-old German national, Rami Mackenzie alias
Ahmed Siddiqi.
An expert in making suicide vests and wanted by the German authorities
for his links with terrorists, Rami had actually decided to travel to
Islamabad and surrender himself to the German Embassy. But to his bad
luck, he was spotted while donning a burqa and trying to cross over
from North Waziristan to the Bannu district of the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa
Province. Rami told his interrogators that the attackers who have been
trained in North Waziristan by the white jehadis had not yet travelled
to Europe.
A recruiting video produced by the North Waziristan-based German
jehadis and posted on an al-Qaeda website shows how European militants
are joining insurgents fighting in Pakistani tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan. The 50-minute video shows some German-speaking gunmen,
armed with AK-47s, light machine guns and mortars, apparently taking
on Pakistani troops in Waziristan, close to the border with
Afghanistan. The video coupled with the disclosures made by Rami
Mackenzie subsequently set alarm bells ringing in several key European
capitals, especially Washington, London and Germany, prompting
concerned intelligence agencies to intensify their efforts to track
down suspected al-Qaeda connections in North Waziristan in a desperate
bid to eliminate al-Qaeda’s European franchise.
amir.mir1969@gmail.com