16 Facts About Ilyas Kashmiri

Physically described by the US Department of State as "approximately six feet tall" and weighting "about 200 pounds", Kashmiri was born on 10 February 1964 in Bhimber, in the Samahni Valley of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.

Ilyas Kashmiri was reported by some media sources as having served in the Pakistan Army's elite Special Services Group, however he denied this in an interview with journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad.

Ilyas Kashmiri studied for some time in Karachi's Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, a madrasa known to produce Islamist militants, where he'd form, with two follow students, the nucleus of what would become the first jihadist outfit of the country, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.

Ilyas Kashmiri continued his militant activities in Kashmir after the war as a member of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, though disagreements with leader Qari Saifullah Akhtar several years after initially joining in 1991 led Kashmiri to establish his own new unit within HuJI known as the 313 Brigade.

Ilyas Kashmiri was reportedly being rewarded personally with Rs 100,000 by then Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf for presenting the severed head of Bhausaheb Maruti Talekar, an Indian Army Soldier to him.

Ilyas Kashmiri rejected orders to serve under Maulana Masood Azhar in the newly founded jihadist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed and was once even targeted by the group.

Ilyas Kashmiri has been associated with a number of attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2010 Pune bombing, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the killing of Ameer Faisal Alavi.

In early 2010, Ilyas Kashmiri was reported to be the new leader of al-Qaeda's Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, following the death of its former leader Abdullah Said al Libi by an American drone.

Ilyas Kashmiri was officially indicted on two counts, for "conspiracy to murder and maim in Denmark" and "conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark".

Ilyas Kashmiri was reported killed along with Hanifullah Janikhel and Kaleemullah in Machikhel, North Waziristan on 7 September 2009 when they were hit by a missile fired from a US drone.

One rumour among militants asserted that Ilyas Kashmiri had been outside urinating when the house he was staying at was hit.

Nine militants, including Ilyas Kashmiri, were reportedly killed in the missile strike.

Ilyas Kashmiri had moved to Wana from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 10 days earlier.

In mid-July 2011, Dawn reported that Ilyas Kashmiri was still alive and active in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In March 2012, the Daily Times reported that "reliable sources" had recently seen Ilyas Kashmiri meeting with TTP head Hakimullah Mehsud in North Waziristan, but that journalists were unable to access the tribal regions in northern Pakistan to verify the report.

Shortly after his death, the Pakistan Ministry of Interior alleged that Ilyas Kashmiri's group had organised the assassination of Minister of Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti and The Telegraph reported based on unnamed Pakistani officials that Ilyas Kashmiri was organising a death squad to avenge Osama Bin Laden's death.