Al-Qaeda said its No. 3 leader and Osama bin Laden’s one-time top money man, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, has been killed along with several family members, in what would be a major blow to the global terror network.
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 jihadist Web sites on Monday.
“We have strong reason to believe that’s true and that [Yazid] was killed recently in Pakistan’s tribal areas,” a US official said. “In terms of counterterrorism, this would be a big victory.”
Yazid, one of a number of Egyptians in the higher echelons of al-Qaeda, was a founding member of the network and a former treasurer to bin Laden who was accused of channeling money to some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.
Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said al-Masri, would be one of the highest profile al-Qaeda leaders killed since US President Barack Obama took office.
“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 organization’s prime conduit to bin Laden and [al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-] Zawahiri,” he said. “He was key to al-Qaeda’s command and control.”
The al-Qaeda message carried by the SITE group that monitors Islamist Web sites did not say where or when Yazid was killed other than to speak of his “martyrdom.”
It said his wife, three of his daughters, his granddaughter, and other men, women and children were killed along with him.
“His death will only be a severe curse by his life upon the infidels. The response is near,” the message translated by SITE said.
Some US media reports said Yazid was killed in a US drone strike in the Pakistani tribal areas on the Afghan border, where the US has been waging a covert drone war against militants in areas outside direct government control.
“Though these terrorists remain extremely dangerous and determined to strike at the United States, the removal from the battlefield of top leaders like al-Masri is further proof that the tribal areas are not quite the safe haven al-Qaeda and its allies thought them to be,” a US official said.
Yazid, 54, was among those whose assets were frozen by the US Treasury in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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