Al-Qaida and Taliban militants killed recently

Four top al-Qaida and Taliban figures have been killed in the past two months.
• Sept. 17: Noordin Muhammed Top, identified by authorities as the leader of al-Qaida in Southeast Asia, died in Indonesia during a gunfight with police seeking suspects in the July bombings of two Jakarta hotels. He was implicated in every major attack in Indonesia since 2002, including two bombings on the resort island of Bali that together killed 222 people, mostly foreigners.
• Sept. 14: Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most-wanted al-Qaida operatives in Somalia, was killed during a helicopter assault by U.S. forces in southern Somalia. He allegedly helped mastermind the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people.
• Sept. 7: Ilyas Kashmiri, an al-Qaida operations chief in northwest Pakistan, is believed to have been killed in a compound in North Waziristan by missiles fired by U.S. drones. Kashmiri, who was in charge of al-Qaida's paramilitary operations in Pakistan, was accused of playing a role in the failed assassination attempts against former President Pervez Musharraf.
• Aug. 5: Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban, is reportedly killed in a CIA missile strike in South Waziristan, along with his wife and bodyguards. Members of the group initially denied he had been killed, but later confirmed the death. Mehsud was blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.