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Al-Qaida’s second-in-command was assassinated in Iran in August by Israeli agents acting at the behest of the United States, the New York Times reported, citing intelligence officials.
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle in Tehran, the NYT reported. He was charged with helping to plan the 1998 bombings against two US embassies in Africa.
Masri was seen as a likely successor to Ayman al-Zawahri, who is believed to be the current leader of al-Qaida.
It was unclear what role, if any, the United States played in the killing of the Egyptian-born militant on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the embassy attacks, the NYT said, adding that U.S. authorities had been tracking Masri and other members of al-Qaida. operating in Iran for years.
A US official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to confirm any of the details of the NYT story or say if there was any US involvement. The White House national security council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Masri was killed along with his daughter, the widow of Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza bin Laden, the Times reported.
Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the September 11 attacks in the United States, was killed in a US raid in Pakistan in 2011.
Masri had been in Iran’s “custody” since 2003, but had been living freely in an exclusive suburb of Tehran since 2015, the NYT quoted unidentified US intelligence officials as saying.
US counterterrorism officials believed that Iran, also an enemy of the United States, could have let it live there to conduct operations against US targets, the NYT said.
It was not immediately known what impact, if any, Masri’s death had on al Qaeda activities. Although it has lost top leaders in the nearly two decades since the attacks on New York and Washington, it has maintained active affiliates from the Middle East to Afghanistan and West Africa.
With Reuters
