Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle in Tehran more than three months ago, the US newspaper reported.
The killing of al-Masri, who was seen as a likely successor to al-Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, was carried out by the Israeli agents at the behest of the US, four intelligence officials told the Times.
It was unclear what, if any, role the US had in the August 7 killing of the Egyptian-born fighter, the paper added. US authorities had been tracking al-Masri and other al-Qaeda members in Iran for years, it said.
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Abdullah and his daughter had been living freely in Tehran’s Pasdaran district since 2015, when they were released from Iranian custody as part of a prisoner exchange with the terrorist group, swapped out for an Iranian diplomat the terrorists had kidnapped in Yemen. Miriam was the widow of Hamza bin Laden, son of alleged 9/11 mastermind Osama. The younger bin Laden, whom Miriam’s father had mentored, was reportedly killed by a US airstrike last year somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteNo country has publicly claimed responsibility for Abdullah’s death, and the terrorist – widely tapped to take over in the event of current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s death – remained featured alongside a $10 million reward on the FBI’s Most Wanted list as of Friday. He was indicted by the US for his alleged involvement in the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. Those attacks took place 22 years to the day before Abdullah was allegedly killed.
Iran has refuted an earlier New York Times report about the killing of an Al-Qaeda* terrorist operating in the country, according to the statement released by the Foreign Ministry.
ReplyDeleteThe Iranian Foreign Ministry has also denied the presence of the group's terrorists in the country.
"Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh strongly rejects the presence of any members of this group in Iran and recommends that the American media not follow the Hollywood scenarios of the American and Zionist authorities," the ministry said in a statement.