AMMAN The brother of a Jordanian man identified as a militant killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan confirmed on Tuesday the alleged militants death.
“A man called me on Sunday and said my brother died in the US attack. He spoke bad Arabic and said he escaped the attack. I think he is a Pakistani,” Omar Mahdi Zeidan told AFP.
Websites monitored by US-based SITE Intelligence said on Monday that a man who moved to Afghanistan in 1999 and stayed on to fight US-led forces was killed in a US drone attack in Pakistans Waziristan region.
The forums Al-Fallujah and Shamukh al-Islam announced the “martyrdom” on January 10 of Mahmud Mahdi Zeidan, whose nom de guerre was Mansur al-Shami, SITE reported.
“My brother called us a week before his death and asked us to pray to God to make him martyr. He used to call us from time to time,” Zeidan said.
“He was the bodyguard of Al-Qaedas field leader Mustapha Abulyazid.”
SITE did not specify which drone strike in which the Jordanian was killed.
Pakistani officials said last week that 13 militants, including four foreigners, were killed in two US drone strikes in North Waziristan.
Zeidan appeared on January 4 in a recording by As-Sahab, a website frequently used by Al-Qaeda, giving a sermon for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, SITE Intelligence said.
He also recorded an audio message released by As-Sahab last August giving advice to mujahedeen fighters.
Born in 1974, Zeidan, who is of Palestinian origin, obtained his BA in sharia Islamic law from Yarmuk University in the northern Jordanian city of Irbid in 1997.
He was married and had four children.
“My brother worked for Taliban radio in 2001 and then he joined the mujahedeen,” Zeidan said, adding that their father is a leader of Jordans Muslim Brotherhood movement.
“We are accepting condolences now over his death, and the authorities did not prevent us from doing so” in Irbids Palestinian refugee camp, the brother added.
Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the man believed to have killed seven CIA agents and his Jordanian handler in a suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan last month, was also of Jordanian origin.
