Pakistan sources confirmed the death of Kashmiri, successor of Bin Laden

Pakistan, June 4, 2011

A U.S. plane bombed a shelter of the terrorist network Al Qaeda in a tribal region in Pakistan and killed one of the leaders that might have been the replacement for Bin Laden.

Ilyas Kashmiri was among the most wanted terrorists by the U.S. and after the death of Osama Bin Laden would have been promoted to command one of the detachments of the network, called “Brigade 313″.

While they were trying to recover the bodies of those killed, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters that authorities were confident that Kashmiri is one of them.

As early in 2009 had been much speculation of his death in an attack carried out by another U.S. aircraft.

A Pakistani television station quoted a statement done by Harkat-ul Jihad Islami, a terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda and led by Kashmiri, confirming his death.

The statement said “our leader and commander in chief, Mohamed Ilyas Kashmiri, fell as a martyr along with other colleagues during the bombing of a drone U.S. on June 3, 2011”.

“Soon Americans will see our revenge. Our goal is only the U.S.’ they added.

Kashmiri had been part of the guerrillas who fought in 1980 against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan along with Bin Laden.

He has been linked to the terrorist attacks of 2008 in the Indian city of Bombay, which killed 166 people.