The US has struck again inside Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. The latest airstrike targeted a key al Qaeda facilitator who served as a bridge between the Taliban and al Qaeda. The US is also stating that al Qaeda operative Khalid Habib was killed in last week's strike in South Waziristan.

Today's strike in the town of Mir Ali killed an estimated 15 to 20 people, according to reports. Pakistani intelligence sources claim al Qaeda operative Abu Kasha was killed in the attack. The reports have not been confirmed.

Kasha was an Iraqi national who operated in the Mir Ali region. In January 2007, an American military intelligence official told The Long War Journal that Abu Kasha was the key link between al Qaeda's Shura Majlis -- main Shura or consultive body -- and the Taliban.

His resonsibilities have expanded to assisting in facilitating al Qaeda external operations against the West, a senior US military intelligence official told told The Long War Journal today.

Kasha commanded two local Pakistani commanders, Imanullah and Haq Nawaz Dawar. These men administer al Qaeda's network in Mir Ali. Kasha had a working relationship and close communication with the Uzbek terror groups, including the Islamic Jihad Group run by Najimuddin Uzbek, who also operates out of North Waziristan.

US intelligence believes Khalid Habib was killed in last week's strikes

Last week's airstrike in North Waziristan has netted a senior al Qaeda leader, according to US intelligence sources. A senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal that Khalid's death was "very likely." Sources were skeptical of the early reports of Habib's death.

Yesterday, Los Angeles Times reported that intelligence officials said Khalid was believed dead. Today, sources told ABC News that "the US now has evidence that Khalid Habib was killed."

Habib served as the commander of al Qaeda's paramilitary forces in Pakistan's tribal areas. This responsibility would placed him in charge of al Qaeda's notorious 055 Brigade and the other Arab and foreign brigades that have formed in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Habib also assisted in al Qaeda's external operations aimed at the US and Europe. "US officials have detected advanced efforts in the Waziristan area by Habib and others to send terror teams to the US and Europe," ABC News reported. "A number of suspected European and American recruits have been spotted in the area, officials have reported."

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 US strike on al Qaeda safe house strike in South Waziristan on Aug. 30.

Habib has been described as "one of the five or six most capable, most experienced terrorists in the world." But he is not al Qaeda's "fourth-ranking person in the Qaeda hierarchy," a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal.

"The numbering of al Qaeda leaders beyond Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri is wrong," the source said. The numbering of al Qaeda leaders "was done at a time when we didn't understand the group," the source said, explaining that senior leaders share responsibilities and the network is not hierarchical in nature.

Attacking al Qaeda's external operations

The US campaign in Pakistan is aimed at disrupting al Qaeda's ability to attack the West, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal on Sept. 19. US intelligence believes the next attack launched against the West will originate from Pakistan's tribal areas, where al Qaeda operates 157 known training camps.

There have been 26 recorded cross-border attacks and attempts in Pakistan in 2008, according to numbers compiled by The Long War Journal. Nineteen of these attacks have occurred since Aug. 31. There were only 10 strikes during 2006 and 2007 combined.

Four senior al Qaeda leaders -- Abu Laith al Libi, Abu Sulayman Jazairi, Abu Khabab al Masri, and Khalid Habib -- have been killed during the strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas in 2008.

The first major strike against al Qaeda's external operations network 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. Fourteen others were killed in the strike, including several members of Jazairi's staff.

Jazairi succeeded Abu Ubaidah al Masri, a senior al Qaeda operative who served as al Qaeda operations chief for global strikes. Ubaidah is thought to have died of an illness. In addition to being al Qaeda's external operations chief, Jazairi also was a senior trainer and an explosives expert. These skills enabled him to directly train operatives for strikes in the West.

The next major strike occurred more than two months later in the Azam Warsak region in South Waziristan on July 28. The attack killed Midhat Mursi al Sayyid Umar, a senior al Qaeda commander who is better known as Abu Khabab al Masri, along with four members of his staff.

Khabab served as the chief of al Qaeda's weapons of mass destruction program, known as Project al Zabadi. He is best known for running a training camp at Derunta in Afghanistan, where he conducted experiments on animals to determine the effectiveness of chemical weapons. Khabab was also a master bomb-marker, and passed his skills onto his associates.

Other airstrikes have targeted Taliban and al Qaeda safe houses in the tribal areas run by Baitullah Mehsud, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and Mullah Nazir. All three Taliban leaders provide shelter to al Qaeda and sponsor terror camps in their tribal areas.

Jalaluddin and his son, Siraj, have close links with al Qaeda and are actively recruiting and training foreign al Qaeda members to conduct attacks in Afghanistan and the West.

Qari Hussain, who is Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud’s deputy, runs a suicide training camp for children in South Waziristan.

US attacks inside Pakistan and incidents along the border in 2008:

• US strikes kills al Qaeda operative in North Waziristan
Oct. 31, 2008
• US targets Taliban "facility" in South Waziristan
Oct. 26, 2008
• US hits Haqqani Network in North Waziristan
Oct. 22, 2008
• US strike in Baitullah Mehsud's territory kills 6
Oct. 16, 2008
• US targets safe house in North Waziristan
Oct. 11, 2008
• US strike kills 9 al Qaeda and Taliban in North Waziristan
Oct. 9, 2008
• US conducts two strikes in North Waziristan
Oct. 3, 2008
• Taliban: Baitullah Mehsud alive; US strike in North Waziristan
Oct. 1, 2008
• Pakistan military fires on ISAF forces
Sept. 25, 2008
• Pakistani military fires on US helicopters at border
Sept. 22, 2008
• US strikes Taliban camp in South Waziristan
Sept. 17, 2008
• Report: US helicopters fired on while crossing Pakistani border
Sept. 15, 2008
• US hits compound in North Waziristan,
Sept. 12, 2008
• US targets Haqqani Network in North Waziristan,
Sept. 8, 2008
• US airstrike killed five al Qaeda operatives in North Waziristan,
Sept. 5, 2008
• Report: US airstrike kills four in North Waziristan,
Sept. 4, 2008
• Pakistanis claim US helicopter-borne forces assaulted village in South Waziristan,
Sept. 3, 2008
• US hits al Qaeda safe house in North Waziristan,
Aug. 31, 2008
• Five killed in al Qaeda safe house strike in South Waziristan,
Aug. 31, 2008
• Al Qaeda safe house targeted in South Waziristan strike,
Aug. 20, 2008
• Cross-border strike targets one of the Taliban's 157 training camps in Pakistan's northwest,
Aug. 13, 2008
• Six killed in strike in South Waziristan,
July 28, 2008
• Report: Strike targets Baitullah Mehsud's hideout in Pakistan,
June 14, 2008
• Senior Algerian al Qaeda operative killed in May 14 strike inside Pakistan,
May 24, 2008
• Missile strike kills 20 in South Waziristan,
March 16, 2008
• Unprecedented Coalition strike nails the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan,
March 13, 2008
• Missile strike on al Qaeda meeting in South Waziristan kills 13,
Feb. 28, 2008
• Senior al Qaeda leader Abu Laith al Libi killed in North Waziristan,
Jan. 31, 2008

Map of Syria. Click map to view.

The US military incursion into Syria was aimed at the senior leader of al Qaeda's extensive network that funnels foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq, a senior intelligence official told The Long War Journal.

US special operations hunter-killer teams entered Syria in an attempt to capture Abu Ghadiya, a senior al Qaeda leader who has been in charge of the Syrian network since 2005. US intelligence analysts identified Ghadiya as the leader of the Syrian network, The Washington Post reported in July. Ghadiya was identified as a “major target” by the US military in February 2008.

The raid to capture Ghadiya occurred in the town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, just five miles from the Iraqi border. Four US helicopters crossed the border and two of the helicopters landed to drop off special operations forces, who then proceeded to clear structures.

Nine people were reported killed and 14 were wounded. Syrian officials claimed innocent construction workers and women and children were killed in the raid.

US officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment if Ghadiya was killed or captured during the raid.

The US military has officially refused to confirm or deny the raid took place. But several senior intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject told The Long War Journal that the raid was indeed carried out inside Syria.

The raid is the first of its kind against Syria. The US has been striking regularly at Taliban and al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan’s tribal areas since the beginning of September.

Ghadiya, whose real name is Badran Turki Hishan al Mazidih, is an Iraqi from the northern city of Mosul. Ghadiya succeeded Suleiman Khalid Darwish, a Syrian national and lieutenant of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by US forces in June 2006. US forces killed Darwish in a raid in Al Qaim in June 2005.

Serving Syria notice

The cross-border raid took place just three days after Major General John Kelly, the commander of Multinational Force - West, said Syria is "problematic." Kelly said the Syrian the government refused to secure the border and al Qaeda operatives are openly working inside Syria.

"The Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi intelligence forces feel that al Qaeda operatives and others operate, live pretty openly on the Syrian side," Kelly said. "And periodically we know that they try to come across."

Kelly said that while al Qaeda has been diminished in the al Qaeda region, it still remains a threat to Iraqi and US forces. A May 11 raid in Al Qaim by al Qaeda teams resulted in the death of 11 Iraqi policemen.

The Iraqi border police, with the help of the US military, are "redoubling" efforts to stand up the Iraqi border guards. The military is also rebuilding a berm along the Syrian border in an effort to stop infiltration into Iraq from Syria. "We're doing much more work along the Syrian border than we've done in the past," Kelly said.

The Syrian Network

Syria has long been a haven for al Qaeda as well as Baathists who fled the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Terrorists and insurgents took advantage of the long, desolate, and unsecured border, which stretches more than 460 miles along Iraq's western provinces of Anbar, Ninewa, and Dohuk.

At the height of the Iraqi insurgency, an estimated 100 to 150 foreign fighters poured into Iraq from Syria each month. Operations in Anbar and Ninewa have pushed that number down to 20 infiltrators a month, according to the US military.

Wanted insurgent leaders, such as Mishan al Jabouri, openly live in Syria. Jabouri, a former member of the Iraqi parliament, fled to Syria after being charged with corruption for embezzling government funds and for supporting al Qaeda. From Syria Jabouri ran Al Zawraa, a satellite television statement that aired al Qaeda and Islamic Army of Iraq propaganda videos showing attacks against US and Iraqi forces.

Al Qaeda established a network of operatives inside Syria to move foreign fighters, weapons, and cash to support its terror activities inside Iraq. An al Qaeda manual detailed ways to infiltrate Iraq via Syria. The manual, titled The New Road to Mesopotamia, was written by a jihadi named Al Muhajir Al Islami, and discovered in the summer of 2005.

The Iraqi-Syrian border was broken down into four sectors: the Habur crossing near Zakhu in the north; the Tal Kujik and Sinjar border crossings west of Mosul; the Al Qaim entry point in western Anbar; and the southern crossing at Al Tanf west of Rutbah near the Jordanian border. Islami claimed the Al Tanf and Habur crossing points were too dangerous to use, and Al Qaim was the preferred route into Iraq.

The US military learned a great deal about al Qaeda's network inside Syria after a key operative was killed in September of 2007. US forces killed Muthanna, the regional commander of al Qaeda's network in the Sinjar region.

During the operation, US forces found numerous documents and electronic files that detailed "the larger al-Qaeda effort to organize, coordinate, and transport foreign terrorists into Iraq and other places," Major General Kevin Bergner, the former spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq, said in October 2007.

Bergner said several of the documents found with Muthanna included a list of 500 al Qaeda fighters from "a range of foreign countries that included Libya, Morocco, Syria, Algeria, Oman, Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom."

Other documents found in Muthanna's possession included a "pledge of a martyr," which is signed by foreign fighters inside Syria, and an expense report. The pledge said the suicide bomber must provide a photograph and surrender their passport. It also stated the recruit must enroll in a "security course" in Syria. The expense report was tallied in US dollars, Syrian lira, and Iraqi dinars, and included items such as clothing, food, fuel, mobile phone cards, weapons, salaries, "sheep purchased," furniture, spare parts for vehicles, and other items.

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point later conducted a detailed study of the "Sinjar Records," which was published in July 2008. The study showed that al Qaeda had an extensive network in Syria and the Syrian government has allowed their activities to continue.

"The Syrian government has willingly ignored, and possibly abetted, foreign fighters headed to Iraq," the study concluded. "Concerned about possible military action against the Syrian regime, it opted to support insurgents and terrorists wreaking havoc in Iraq."

Al Qaeda established multiple networks of "Syrian Coordinators" that "work primarily with fighters from specific countries, and likely with specific Coordinators in fighters’ home countries," according to the study. The Syrian city of Dayr al Zawr serves as a vital logistical hub and a transit point for al Qaeda recruits and operatives heading to Iraq.

A vast majority of the fighters entering Iraq from Sinjar served as suicide bombers. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point estimated that 75 percent conducted suicide attacks inside Iraq.