Senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan on Monday, US officials say. US officials said Libi was the target of an attack which hit a volatile tribal area of Pakistan’s north-west, killing 15 suspected militants.
There has been no confirmation of his death from sources in Pakistan. The White House says Libi’s death deals a heavy blow to al-Qaeda’s operations as he played a critical role in the group’s planning against the West.
“There is no-one who even comes close in terms of replacing the expertise al-Qaeda has just lost,” one US official said.
The official added that al-Qaeda’s leadership “will be hard-pressed to find any one person who can readily step into [Libi’s] shoes”.
Washington believes that following Osama Bin Laden’s death last year, Libi, an Islamic scholar from Libya, became al-Qaeda’s second-in-command after Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Libi had gravitas as a longstanding member of al-Qaeda’s leadership, the official said, and his religious credentials meant he had the authority to issue fatwas and provide guidance to other militants.
Analysts have said that he was in charge of day-to-day operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
He was believed to be the interface between Pakistan’s militant commanders and al-Qaeda operations in Yemen, Iraq and elsewhere.
He was reported killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in 2009, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.
Pakistan’s frontier tribal region is considered a hub of activity by al-Qaeda and Taliban militants and it is very difficult to verify information from the region. Reporters are prevented by the authorities from travelling to the area.
There are no further details explaining how US officials are certain that Libi was killed by the drone strike.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the intelligence community had information which led them to conclude he had been killed.
“I can’t get into details about how his death was brought about but I can tell you he served as Al-Qaeda’s general manager,” Mr Carney said.