NATO kills Qaeda group leader in Afghanistan

The NATO force in Afghanistan said Monday it had killed an al-Qaeda cell leader after he was pin-pointed by alliance aircraft while carrying out an attack on a police post.

Abu Baqir, described as "a dual-hatted Taliban sub-commander and al-Qaeda group leader", was killed on Sunday when his truck was targeted in an airstrike in northern Kunduz province, a hotbed of the insurgency.

Another militant was also killed and several others captured while seeking treatment for their injuries in a local hospital, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

It did not give further details about the al-Qaeda commander.

Afghanistan is in the grip of an Islamic insurgency being waged by the remnants of the Taliban, who are said to be supported by al-Qaeda operatives who once used Afghanistan as a safe haven and training ground.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to oust the Taliban, who had sheltered al-Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect behind the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

The number of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan fighting the intensifying insurgency is nearing its peak of 150,000, under the command of U.S. General David Petraeus.

Meanwhile al-Qaeda's North African wing warned France it will avenge its fighters killed in a raid by French troops in the Sahara desert last month.

Qaeda says will avenge its fighters

In a statement posted on radical Islamist forums, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb called French President Nicolas Sarkozy an "enemy of Allah".

It urged tribes in the desert region straddling Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Algeria to join in the fight against "the sons and agents of Christian France".

The group, which has said it had executed the 78-year-old French hostage Michel Germaneau after the raid failed to free him, told Sarkozy:

"To the enemy of Allah (God) Sarkozy I said: You missed the opportunity and opened the gate of horror for your country."

"The news is what you see, not what you hear. I do not say it would be today or tomorrow or the day after but it will happen," said the statement posted by Abu Anas al Shanghiti.

Al-Qaeda has alleged that France launched the raid while negotiations were under way to release Germaneau, contradicting French officials who had said there had been no talks.

Its statement identified its six fighters killed in the raid as three men from Tuareg tribes, an Algerian, a Mauritanian and a Moroccan.

"I call on these proud tribes whose sons have fallen as martyrs .... to revenge them by killing the renegade sons and agents of Christian France," added Shanghiti.

The news is what you see, not what you hear. I do not say it would be today or tomorrow or the day after but it will happen

Statement by Abu Anas al Shanghiti