The U.S. also confirmed that al Qaeda operative Khalid Habib was killed in last week's strike in South Waziristan. His resonsibilities have expanded to assisting in facilitating an al Qaeda attack against the West. Habib also assisted in al Qaeda's external operations aimed at the US and Europe. There were advanced efforts in the Waziristan area by Habib and others to send terror teams to the US and Europe. Sources confirmed that a number of suspected European and American recruits have been spotted in the area. At least two Western members of al Qaeda have been killed in the recent spate of attacks. Two men carrying Canadian passports were killed in a U.S. strike on an al Qaeda safe house strike in South Waziristan on Aug. 30.
The targets were in line with the first major strike against al Qaeda's external operations network which took place in the town of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal agency on May 14. The missile strike killed Abu Sulayman Jazairi, a senior Algerian al Qaeda operatives who western intelligence sources described as the operational commander tasked with planning attacks on the West. Jazairi also was a senior trainer and an explosives expert. These skills enabled him to directly train operatives for strikes in the West.