The Pakistani Taliban said they killed three Rangers in Karachi to avenge the death of an al Qaeda media operative who was killed in Karachi in mid-November.
According to a Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan statement released on jihadist web forums and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, the Pakistani Taliban said they killed three Pakistani Rangers and wounded four more in an IED attack in Karachi on Dec. 10. The attack was carried out to avenge Abd al Moeed bin Abd al Salam, or Moeed, an al Qaeda media operative who was killed by Rangers last month.
"The lions of the Mujahideen of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan [Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan] destroyed a military vehicle of the paramilitary special forces "Rangers" through an explosive canister in the 'Gulistan-e-Jauhar' area in the city of Karachi," the statement read. "And this Jihadi operation came as vengeance and revenge for the brother Mujahid Abdul Moeed bin Abdul Salam "Abu Umar" -may Allah accept him- and who was martyred in this same area after a raid by those apostate soldiers on his apartment."
The Taliban said they would keep on attacking the Pakistani state because it continues "the war on Islam and the Mujahideen, and support the Cross and the Americans."
"For this, we in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, we will continue Jihad and fighting of enemies of Allah without tiring or boredom, and we will continue to target the government, police, army, Pakistani security forces, and all who supported the Crusaders and apostates in their campaign against Islam," the statement said.
Moeed, a Yemeni citizen who was also known as Saeed Abdul Salam, Moeed Abdul Salam al Yemeni, and Abu Umar, was killed during a raid on his apartment in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar district in Karachi on Nov. 18. Moeed is said to have killed himself during the raid by detonating a hand grenade. He is also said to have possessed a US passport at the time of his death.
Al Qaeda announced the death of Moeed on Dec. 8, and described him as "one of the leaders of the Global Islamic Media Front [GIMF] and a knight from the knights of the Jihadi media and the Jihadi forums" who joined the terror group in 1998. [For more information on Moeed, see LWJ report, Al Qaeda announces death of Karachi-based media operative.]
Moeed is the second mid-to-senior-level al Qaeda operative killed or captured in one of Pakistan's major cities since since the beginning of September. Younis al Mauritani, a senior member of al Qaeda's external operations council, was detained in September by the Frontier Corps in Quetta in Baluchistan province.
The Pakistani Taliban have also taken revenge for the capture of Mauritani. On Sept. 7, two Taliban suicide bombers attacked the home of the Deputy Inspector General of the Baluchistan Frontier Corps, which is located in a high-security zone in the city. The attack killed 24 people, including the Frontier Corps commander's wife. More than 80 were wounded. The Baluchistan Frontier Corps captured Mauritani.