Pakistani military officials claimed that Qari Zia Rahman and Faqir Mohammed were among 30 Taliban and foreign fighters killed during helicopter and airstrikes in the Pindyali region in Mohmand, The Nation reported.
Faqir Mohammed is the leader of the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency; he is also the second in command of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, the group founded by South Waziristan leader Baitullah Mehsud and thought to be led by Hakeemullah Mehsud. Faqir is a close ally of al Qaeda and of its second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri, who is known to have sheltered in Bajaur in the past.
Qari Zia Rahman is an al Qaeda leader who operates in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency as well as in Afghanistan’s Nuristan and Kunar provinces, where the Taliban control most of districts. He is allied with Faqir Mohammed, the leader of the Taliban in Bajaur, as well as with Osama bin Laden. Rahman’s fighters are from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and various Arab nations. He commands a brigade in al Qaeda’s paramilitary Shadow Army, or the Lashkar al Zil, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.
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