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The events in the case of the assassination of the second man in Al-Qaeda, Abu Muhammad al-Masri, in Iran, still dominate the headlines of the US media.
The Associated Press revealed today, Sunday, that the United States and Israel worked together to track down and kill a high-ranking al Qaeda leader in Iran earlier this year.
The agency described the operation as “daring intelligence” by the two allies, and it came at a time when the Trump administration was stepping up pressure on Tehran.
This comes a day after the “New York Times” newspaper announced that Israel assassinated the second man of the Al-Qaeda organization in Tehran at the request of the United States called “Abu Muhammad Al-Masri (Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah)”.
The agency cited four current and former US officials as saying that “Abu Muhammad al-Masri,” the second man from “Al-Qaeda,” was killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August.
Two of the officials said: “The United States provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find Al-Masry and the nickname he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the assassination.”
Of note, Al-Masry was shot dead in an alley in Tehran on August 7, in memory of the 1998 bombings against the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Al-Masry is believed to have participated in planning the attacks and was wanted by the FBI on terrorism charges.
The agency says al-Masri’s assassination represents a blow to the terrorist organization “Al-Qaeda”, accused of carrying out the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. It comes amid rumors in the Middle East about the fate of the organization’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, which so far have not been officially confirmed by either party.
Two officials, one within the intelligence community with first-hand knowledge of the operation and a former CIA officer with knowledge of the matter, said the Israeli Kidon Unit, a unit within Mossad, was responsible for the killing.
The intelligence official said that Maryam, al-Masry’s daughter, was also the target of the operation, as the United States believed that she had prepared to take a leadership role in the “Al-Qaeda” organization, and the information from Intelligence said he had participated in operational planning, according to the official.
Maryam was the daughter of al-Masri, the widow of Hamza bin Laden, who was assassinated last year in the United States, as part of a counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and he is the son of Osama bin Laden, the leader of “Al-Qaeda”, who was also assassinated by elite US forces in “Abbottabad” in Pakistan. The night of May 2, 2011.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denied on Saturday “any presence of Al-Qaeda elements” in Iran, describing the matter as a “context of a comprehensive economic, intelligence and psychological warfare.” .
Khatibzadeh accused the United States and Israel of linking Iran to these groups by lying and leaking false information to the media, adding that the news “is part of the efforts of Washington and Tel Aviv to link Tehran with such groups.”
