Al Qaeda No 3 is dead

KABUL: Al Qaeda said its number three leader and Osama bin Laden’s one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al Yazid, Saeed al Masri, has been killed along with close relatives, in what would be a major blow to the global terror network.

Al Masri, 54, is reported to have been killed in a drone strike last month in the North Waziristan tribal region, sources said.

He was earlier reported to have been killed in August 2008 in air strikes carried out in Bajaur Agency.

The drone had fired four missiles at two houses in a village, 20 kilometres west of Miramshah, killing 14 people and injured seven, sources added.

US monitoring groups said the death of Yazid, who was the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and its liaison with the Taliban for three years, was announced by the group in a message to militant websites on Monday.

The White House said it was “unquestionably a severe blow” to the global terror network.

Al Masri, one of a number of Egyptians in the higher echelons of al Qaeda, was a founding member of the network and once top money man to bin Laden who was accused of channelling cash to some of the September 11 hijackers.

Al Masri would be one of the highest-profile al Qaeda leaders killed since US President Barack Obama took office.

“We welcome his demise,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, after a Pakistani security official said there was “reason to believe” al Masri was dead, probably killed in a drone attack in North Waziristan in late May.

Gibbs said he had spoken to Obama’s top counterterror official John Brennan who told him al Masri, al Qaeda’s finance specialist, was “the biggest target to be either killed or captured in five years.”

A US official had earlier said that there was “strong reason” to believe Yazid had been killed in the tribal areas.

“Al-Masri was the group’s chief operating officer, with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning,” the US official said. “He was also the organisation’s prime conduit to bin Laden and (al Qaeda number two Ayman) al Zawahiri,” he said. “He was key to al Qaeda’s command and control.”

The Pakistani security official told AFP there was “reason to believe” al Masri was dead based on electronic intercepts, telephone intercepts and human intelligence, but that without a body there was no 100 per cent confirmation.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY IFTHIKAR FIRDOUS

Published in the Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2010.