U.S. officials reported the death of an al Qaeda figure identified as the terrorist network's chief of operations in Pakistan, the latest in what they called a series of significant blows to the terrorist network.
Abu Hafs al-Shahri helped coordinate anti-American plots in the region and worked closely with Pakistani Taliban operatives to carry out attacks there, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN Thursday. His cause of death was not disclosed, but the United States frequently uses armed aerial drones to target al Qaeda operatives inside Pakistan.
Al-Shahri was seen as a possible successor to al Qaeda's second-in-command, Atiyah Abdul Rahman, who was killed in late August, the U.S. official said. Little else was immediately known about him.
A senior Obama administration official said al-Shahri was killed earlier this week in northwest Pakistan. Pakistani intelligence officials reported Sunday [the 10th tenth anniversary of 9/11] that a suspected drone strike in the tribal district of north Waziristan, near the rugged border with Afghanistan, had killed three people, but the targets of the strike were not immediately known.
It's the latest in a series of losses among the top ranks of the terrorist network since the U.S. commando raid that killed its founder, Osama bin Laden, in May.
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According to the Dawn.com (Pakistan)...
[Al-Shahri] also served as the militant group’s coordinator with the main Pakistani Taliban group, known as the TTP, according to the official.
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