White House: Al-Qaida second in command killed by US drone

The White House has confirmed the death of al Qaida's second-in-command, calling it a "major blow" to the extremist network.     

White House spokesman Jay Carney would not say how Abu Yahya al Libi was killed but an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said it was in a drone strike on Monday morning.      

Carney described al Libi as an operational leader and a "general manager" of al Qaida and said his death is a "major blow" to the network.       

He said al Libi had a range of experience that would be hard for al Qaida to replicate and brings the network closer than ever before to its ultimate demise.        

"His death is part of the degradation that has been taking place to core al Qaida during the past several years.  And that degradation has depleted the ranks to such an extent that there is now no clear successor to take on the breadth of his responsibilities," Carney said.       

Al Libi was the latest in the dozen-plus senior commanders removed in the clandestine US war against al Qaida since Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden.       

A hero in jihadi circles for his 2005 escape from an American military prison in Afghanistan, al Libi was elevated to al Qaida's No. 2 spot when al Zawahri rose to replace bin Laden shortly after he was killed on May 2, 2011.     

Pakistani officials had previously said that eight militants died in a drone strike in the Pakistani village of Khassu Khel in the North Waziristan tribal area.        

Militants and residents in the area told Pakistani agents that al-Libi was in the house when it was hit, Pakistani intelligence officials said. They said the mud and brick house was destroyed in the attack and a vehicle used by al Libi was also destroyed although a local Taliban chief said he had not been present.         

The US State Department's Rewards for Justice Program had offered a reward of a million dollars for information leading to al Libi.      

The US has carried out a flurry of drone strikes recently - seven in less than two weeks - some of which may have targeted and wounded al Libi.   

Al Libi, an Islamic scholar, was captured in 2002 and held by US Forces at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan until he escaped in 2005.     

He has been described by a US researcher as "media-savvy, ideologically extreme, and masterful at justifying savage acts of terrorism with esoteric religious arguments."     

Al Libi was one of thousands of men from around the Muslim and Arab world who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight the Soviet Union.    

He later went to Mauritania for advanced religious studies which he then used in repeated videos and other al Qaida outreach projects designed to attract followers and justify the group's deadly tactics.       

The stepping up of drone strikes since late May follows a relative lull driven by tensions between Washington and Islamabad over American airstrikes last year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.         
Pakistan has demanded that Washington stop drone strikes in the country - a demand the U.S. has ignored.        

APTN