Jordanian al-Qaida bodyguard killed by US drone on Afghan-Pakistan border, brother says
By APWednesday, January 13, 2010
Jordanian killed in US drone attack in Afghanistan
AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian militant who served as a bodyguard for al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader was killed in a U.S. drone attack along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border over the weekend, his brother said Wednesday.
Mahmoud Mahdi Zeidan is believed to have been killed in one of two U.S. attacks targeting al-Qaida on Saturday.
About a week earlier, another Jordanian linked to al-Qaida, who turned out to be a double agent, blew himself up at a secret CIA base in Afghanistan, killing seven American CIA employees and his Jordanian handler. That Dec. 30 suicide bombing was the worst attack on the U.S. spy agency in decades.
A U.S.-based group that monitors Islamic militant Web sites, SITE Intelligence, quoted Pakistani officials as saying that two U.S. drone strikes in Waziristan killed 13 militants, four of whom were foreign nationals. Waziristan is a tribal area where Pakistan’s army is waging an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban.
Zeidan’s brother, Omar Mahdi Zeidan, told The Associated Press he received word that his brother died in one of the two strikes in a phone call Sunday from an unidentified caller believed to be linked to either the Taliban or al-Qaida.
“He spoke in broken Arabic and told us that my brother fell as a martyr in the attack,” Zeidan said. He said the caller told him Zeidan died in an area near the Pakistan-Afghan border.
He said his brother served as a bodyguard for al-Qaida’s No. 3, Sheikh Mustafa Abu al-Yazid.
Jordanian government records show the militant, born to a family of Palestinian refugees, was 35 years old. Omar Zeidan confirmed the family lived in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan.
He said his brother, who was also known as Mansour al-Shami, had a bachelor’s degree in Sharia — or Islamic law — and left Jordan in 1999 to join Arab fighters in Pakistan.
“He was after jihad (holy war) in the name of God,” he said.
Omar Zeidan said the family held three days of mourning for Mahmoud beginning Sunday.
