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Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, the second in command of Al Qaeda, was reportedly assassinated in Iran by Israeli agents three months ago.
Under various aliases, including Abu Muhammad al Masri, the Egyptian-born militant had long appeared on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list.
He was shot by two men on a motorcycle on the streets of Tehran on August 7, at the urging of the United States, according to the New York Times.
Masri is said to have been murdered along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden.
The bombing at the US embassy in Nairobi killed 158 and wounded 4,824
The paper says IranOfficial media identified the victims as Habib Daoud, a Lebanese history teacher, and his 27-year-old daughter Maryam; however, the claim is that those names were simply an alias.
Masri was accused of helping plan the 1998 bombings of multiple US embassies in Africa.
Near-simultaneous attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 and injured more than 4,500.
An FBI poster, describing Masri as in his 58s, with a scar on the right side of his lower lip and a possible mustache, offered up to $ 10 million (£ 7.6) for information leading to his capture.
Masri was a professional soccer player in Egypt’s top league when he was young, according to official documents previously filed in lawsuits in the United States.
In the late 1990s, he is believed to have been one of Bin Laden’s closest associates.
Bin Laden was the head of Al Qaeda at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks and was killed in a US raid in Pakistan ten years later.
The newspaper cited intelligence officials as the source of Masri’s death, but Israel, America and Al Qaeda they have yet to publicly acknowledge the murder.
Kenyan security guards keep watch after 1998 attack
On Saturday, Iran denied the report, saying there were no Al Qaeda “terrorists” on its territory.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh blamed the United States and Israel for “linking Iran to such groups by lying and leaking false information” in an attempt “to avoid responsibility for the criminal activities of this group and other terrorist groups. in the region”.
He called it the “Hollywood script” trap of top US and Israeli officials, and warned the media not to believe it.
In October, a senior Afghan security source told Reuters that Masri had been killed in the Pasdaran area of Tehran, however Reuters was unable to corroborate that information.
The Times said that US authorities had been tracking Masri and other al Qaeda operatives in Iran for years.
Israel has previously said that its intelligence services have penetrated Iran, even saying in 2018 that it had smuggled an alleged archive of Iranian nuclear secrets.
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Masri had been living in Tehran since 2015, officials told the Times.
Iran and Al Qaeda have historically been enemies due to the Sunni-Shiite divide.
The Times quotes unidentified US intelligence officials as saying that Iran may have allowed Masri to live in the country freely to conduct operations against their common adversary, the United States.
Despite losing several high-level leaders in recent decades, al Qaeda has maintained active affiliates from the Middle East to Afghanistan and West Africa.
During the last month, two more Senior al Qaeda leaders have been assassinated in Afghanistan by local security forces.
