US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirms the assasssination Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 on August 7 in Tehran.
The New York Times reported in November that Israeli agents carried out the hit on Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah at the behest of the US. Abdullah, who used the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was accused of being one of the chief planners of devastating attacks on two US embassies in Africa in 1998 and a 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya.
Iran denied the report of the Israeli assassination. Pompeo did not say who was behind the targeted killing.
The New York Times, says Pompeo, said it was surprising Al-Masri was in Tehran, as Iran and Al-Qaeda are “bitter enemies.”
“It could not be more wrong. It wasn’t surprising at all. And more importantly, they’re not enemies. Al-Masri’s presence inside Iran points to the reason we’re here today.”
“Al-Qaeda has a new home base. It is the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, Bin Laden’s wicked creation is poised to gain strength and capabilities. We ignore this Iran-Al-Qaeda nexus at our own peril,” says Pompeo.
American efforts to stamp out al-Qaeda after 9/11 prompted the terror group to “search for a safer haven. And they found one.”
Iran “was the perfect choice,” he says.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks on ‘China challenge to US national security and academic freedom,’ in Atlanta, Georgia December 9, 2020. (Tami Chappell / AFP)
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
