Drone hits

Major al Qaeda leaders killed in U.S. drone strikes over the past year:

June 4: Abu Yahya al-Libi, al Qaeda’s second in command, is killed in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area.

Feb. 9: Badr Mansoor, al-Qaeda commander, is killed in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area. He led a faction of more than 200 fighters.

Sept. 30, 2011: Anwar al-awlaki, a key member of al-qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is killed in the mountains of Yemen. The 40-year-old American-Yemeni cleric emerged as an enormously influential preacher among militants living in the West, with his English-language Internet sermons calling for jihad, or holy war, against the United States.

Sept. 11, 2011: Abu Hafs al-Shahri, al Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan, is killed in Pakistan’s tribal region.

Aug. 22, 2011: Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, al Qaeda’s second in command, is killed in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area. A Libyan national, al-Rahman was trusted by Osama bin Laden to oversee al Qaeda’s daily operations.

June 3, 2011: Ilyas Kashmiri, al Qaeda’s military operations chief in Pakistan, is believed to have been killed in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal area. He was one of five most-wanted militant leaders in the country, accused of a string of bloody attacks in Pakistan and India.