Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader ‘killed in Syria’
Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, who goes by the name of Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, has been killed in a drone strike in northwestern Syria, a monitoring group says.
‘The sheikh is the deputy of Ayman al-Zawhiri,’ Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told DPA.
A US drone is believed to have carried out the strike near a military base in al Mastoume in the countryside of the province of Idlib, the Observatory said.
The radical militants of Hai’at Tahrir al-Sham (Levant Liberation Body) posted a statement saying al-Masri was killed in a ‘crusade coalition raid.’
The Hai’at Tahrir al-Sham is a newly formed alliance led by the Fateh al-Sham Front, the al-Qaeda-affiliated body formerly known as al-Nusra Front.
In the past two months, the US-led coalition have conducted drone strikes and air raids against al-Qaeda linked officials and targets in Idlib province.
Al-Masri had ties to senior al-Qaeda leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahiri and the late Osama bin Laden, the Pentagon statement added.
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