BEIRUT, Lebanon – Al-Qaeda confirms that top leader Abu Khayr al-Masri, believed to be the organization’s number two, is killed in an air strike by the US-led coalition in Syria.
In a statement, two branches of the jihadist group, including the powerful Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), called Masri a “hero” and said he was killed “during a Crusader drone strike” in Syria.
“All of al-Sham (Syria) will bear witness to the latest crime of America and the Crusader alliance,” the statement dated Wednesday says, in reference to the US-led coalition bombing jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
It also expresses its condolences to al-Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Masri is a son-in-law of the group’s founder Osama bin Laden and is believed to be Zawahiri’s deputy.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said earlier this week that a February 26 coalition raid on the town of Mastumah in Idlib province had killed Masri.
Egypt-born al-Masri, 59, was one of the most prominent figures in Al-Qaeda to have roots in the era before the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to the Soufan Group, a private security and intelligence consultancy.
— AFP
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