Global Times March 03, 2010
Anti-China terrorist reportedly killed
By Hao Zhou and Qiu Yongzheng
An Al Qaeda-linked militant who called for attacks on China has been killed in a US missile strike in Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence and Taliban officials said Tuesday.
Abdul Haq al-Turkistani, leader of a terrorist group called the Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP), was killed in an attack by a US drone aircraft in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border February 15, the sources said.
A Taliban militant official also confirmed al-Turkistani had been killed in the US missile strike.
When asked about the strike Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang couldn't confirm or comment on the kill.
Last year, al-Turkistani appeared in a video on an Islamist website calling for Chinese people to be attacked at home and abroad.
Hundreds of Chinese people work in Pakistan and several have been kidnapped or killed in attacks in recent years.
In 2008, the group threatened to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games.
Shortly before the Games, the group claimed responsibility for several incidents in China that year, including an attack on police July 17 in the eastern city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, and the bombing of a plastics factory in Guangzhou the same day.
"TIP is said to be another name for the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP), also known as the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a small Islamic extremist group," according to globalsecurity.org.
The site goes on to explain that the group was designated by the US as a supporter of terrorism in September 2002, claiming that it was also associated with Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
Global Times reporters in Kabul learned from local Afghans that TIP members are mostly stationed in the north of the country, along the Afghan- Pakistani boarder, and are "not a big name" among all militant groups.
According to Pakistani reports, there are hundreds of TIP members currently active along the Afghan-Pakistani boarder. Due to the language barrier, the TIP looks to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan – another Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group with bigger influence – for support.
However, Murad Ali Murad, commander of the Afghan National Army 209th Corps operating in Kunduz Province in the north, told the Global Times that his troops hadn't confronted TIP members in the past two years.
The Pakistani army said yesterday that it had captured a key Taliban and Al Qaeda complex dug into mountains close to the Afghan border.
Major General Tariq Khan accompanied journalists to the warren of caves in the area of Damadola that he said had served as a key militant headquarters until troops overran the complex in an offensive launched in January.
"There were Egyptians, Uzbeks, Chechens and Afghans (fighters) killed in the operation," he told reporters.
Damadola, in the Bajaur tribal region, was the scene of a 2006 US drone strike that targeted Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who managed to escape.
Alhaj M. Zaher Vahdat, vice governor of the Balkh Province in the north, told the Global Times that Afghan people regret the country's strategic importance that attracts militants and military powers that have brought "nothing but chaos."
In a separate report, a British soldier was shot dead yesterday at a vehicle checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defence said, a day after six NATO troops were killed in one of the worst days for the alliance this year.
Agencies contributed to this story
© Copyright 2010, Global Times
