Reports noted that a senior Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in a US missile strike in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district recently1. Al Libi was suspected of involvement in a suicide attack that killed 23 people outside Bagram air base during a visit by US Vice President Cheney in February 2007, among other terror strikes.

Meanwhile, the German government turned down a US request to contribute more troops as part of the 3,200 additional NATO contingents that will be deployed in the south of the country2. Germany’s nearly 3,000 troops are mostly deployed in the relatively peaceful north of the country.

In other developments, a suicide attack inside a mosque in Kandahar killed the Deputy Governor of Helmand province and 5 other people on January 31 while a suicide attack on an Army bus in Kabul on the same day killed a civilian.

• 1. “Senior Qaeda Commander Is Killed by U.S. Missile,” The New York Times, February 1, 2008, at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/world/asia/01qaeda.html?ref=todayspaper
• 2. “Germany turns down US request for more Afghan troops,” IANS, February 1, 2008, at http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiaabroad/20080201/r_t_ians_wl_europe/twl-ger...