The second-in-command of Al-Qaeda, accused in the United States of the 1998 bombings of its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, was secretly killed in Iran in August, the New York Times reported this Friday (13.11.2020).
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who was on the FBI’s list of the most wanted terrorists, was shot dead in Tehran by two Israeli agents on a motorcycle at the behest of the United States, intelligence officials confirmed to the Times.
The attack, which took place on August 7 on the anniversary of the African attacks, has not been publicly acknowledged by the United States, Iran, Israel or Al-Qaeda.
He was killed with his daughter
The senior leader of Qaeda, known as the Abu Muhammad al-Masri war, was killed along with his daughter, Miriam, widow of Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza bin Laden, the Times said.
U.S. federal authorities had offered a $10 million reward for any information that would lead to his capture.
Abdullah was “the most experienced and capable operational planner who is not in the custody of the United States or its allies,” according to a highly classified document provided by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center in 2008, according to the Times.
Bombings by U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 left 224 dead and more than 5,000 injured.
Abdullah was formally indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury that same year for his role.
