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Summary A senior Al Qaeda, Aslam Awan, was killed in US drone strike in Miranshah on January 10.
A senior Al Qaeda operations planner was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan last week, according to a US official.Aslam Awan died January 10 when a CIA-operated missile slammed into a compound near the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.The official described Awan as a key player with Al Qaeda who was not known by the public but was being tracked by the intelligence community. The official said Awan was working on attacks against the West.His death reduces Al Qaedas thinning bench of another operative devoted to plotting the death of innocent civilians, said the American official.The missile strike was one of two launched last week, marking the end of a seven-week pause in US drone attacks after an incident in November when NATO forces in Afghanistan accidentally fired upon and killed 24 Pakistani troops operating in the border region.Although US officials deny there was an official lull in drone operations, the relationship with Pakistan has been on a down-spin over the past year after a number of high profile incidents, including the secret raid by US forces on the compound that housed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
