al-Rahman Death:

a Blow To Al-Qaeda Core Leadership

Posted: 28 Aug 2011

Unnamed American and Pakistani officials have confirmed Al-Qaeda operational planner and second-ranking commander, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, was killed this week by a CIA drone attack, according to a report from the New York Times.

Intelligence officials claim electronic files recovered by Navy Seals from Osama Bin Laden’s Abbottabad hideout show Rahman was in frequent contact with the former al-Qaeda figurehead in the months leading up to the May 2 raid when he was killed. According to one official, “Atiyah was at the top of Al Qaeda’s trusted core. His combination of background, experience and abilities … will not be easily replaced.”

In this way, Rahman will be remembered as a major organizer and representative of the Pakistan-based central al-Qaeda leadership to its affiliates. He is specifically credited with playing a key role in establishing ties between the core leadership and al-Qaeda in Iraq as well as the 2007 creation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

According to a report from Reuters, Rahman (a Libyan national from the coastal city of Misrata) was further seen as one of the first al-Qaeda leaders to urge the group’s supporters to cooperate with Arab Spring revolts – even when the uprisings were not Islamist-inspired. Noman Benotman, a former Libyan Islamist rebel who was part of a failed attempt to topple Qaddhafi in the 1990s and who now works as an analyst for the London-based Quilliam Foundation, recently called Rahman “The CEO of Al-Qaeda who was at the heart of the management process of Al-Qaeda worldwide.” Benotman ventures that in the last two years Rahman “more or less single handedly” kept the core al-Qaeda network connected.

Rahman’s death is being billed by analysts as the latest in a series of crippling blows to al-Qaeda’s top ranks in recent months. Evidence from among the files captured in Abbottabad, has lead US officials to believe he and Bin Laden worked closely to broker a deal with Pakistan that would allow protection for al-Qaeda leadership in exchange for a halt of attacks on the country. It remains unproven, however, if the agreement was ever ratified on the Pakistani side and to what degree Rahman’s location was known to them in the lead up to his death on August 22.

(worldthreats.com)

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