WASHINGTON — The leader of al-Qaida’s branch in war-torn Yemen, considered by U.S. intelligence officials to be the most serious terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland, has been killed in a U.S. drone strike, according to local news reports and social media posts.
Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who carried a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head and once served as Osama bin Laden’s secretary, also was the second in command of the terrorist network’s global operations. If confirmed, his death would represent a setback to al-Qaida, but one from which it would likely recover.
“He was very significant, but you don’t defeat an organization like this by killing its leader,” said Seth Jones, a terrorism expert with the RAND Corp., a policy institute. “It’s a blow, but not an irrecoverable blow.”
U.S. officials said they were unable to comment on the local news reports and social media posts claiming that al-Wuhayshi had been killed on Friday.
A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter was classified, said that U.S. intelligence agencies were investigating the matter, but he declined to say anything further.
Al-Wuhayshi’s death would represent a second counterterrorism success for the United States over a three-day period.
U.S. jetfighters on Sunday dropped multiple 500-pound bombs on a compound near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian extremist linked to al-Qaida, U.S. officials said. He was wanted for the 2013 seizure of a natural gas plant in Algeria in which 38 foreigners died.
According to local news reports in Yemen and social media posts, al-Wuhayshi was killed by a U.S. drone strike on Friday in the southern port city of al Mukallah.
Posts distributed on Twitter by known jihadis said that al-Wuhayshi was replaced by a top AQAP member, Qasm al-Rimi, also known by his nom de guerre of Abu Hureira al-Sanaani, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremists’ online activities.
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