Al Qaeda chief gunned down by Israeli hit squad
AL QAEDA’S second-in-command has been assassinated by an Israeli hit squad on the streets of Tehran in a joint operation with the US.
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the name Abu Muhammad Al-Masri, was gunned down in a hail of bullets by two Mossad agents on a motorcycle. His daughter Maryam, the widow of Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza, was also killed. The terrorist, who was on the FBI’s most wanted list and had a £7.5million bounty on his head, was suspected of masterminding the 1998 bomb attacks against US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Tanzania, in which 224 people were killed. He was also accused of ordering other Al Qaeda atrocities in Africa, including an attack in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002, which killed 13 locals and three Israeli tourists.
That attack is thought to be the reason why the US and Israel launched the joint operation to kill Al-Masri in the Iranian capital on August 7. US officials confirmed his death to the New York Times this weekend.
Al-Masri was believed to be around 58 years old and was in line to succeed
‘The FBI had a bounty of £7.5million on his head’
Al Qaeda’s ageing leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who is thought to be hiding in Pakistan. Last night a British security source said: ‘Al-Masri’s death is a huge blow for Al Qaeda, as he was lined up to succeed this organisation. When Zawahiri dies, then Al Qaeda will have to find someone of this calibre to succeed him.’
US sources revealed that Al-Masri was supposedly in Iranian ‘custody’ since 2003, but was actually living freely in the Pasdaran district of Tehran with his daughter.
On the evening of August 7, AlMasri was driving his white Renault
L90 with Maryam near his house when the motorcycle gunmen drew up close. Five shots were fired from a pistol fitted with a silencer, with four bullets entering the vehicle and a fifth hitting a nearby car.
After Al-Masri’s death, the Iranian government concocted a cover-up story, falsely claiming the deceased were a Lebanese history professor called Habib Daoud, a supposed member of Hezbollah, and his 27year-old daughter Maryam.
Little is known about Al-Masri, but US court documents suggest he was from Egypt and a one-time professional footballer. He first took up arms in Afghanistan following Russia’s invasion in 1979.