Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah was gunned down by two males on a motorbike in Tehran
Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, accused of serving to to mastermind the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, was killed in Iran in August by Israeli operatives performing on the behest of the United States, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing intelligence officers.
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who glided by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down by two males on a motorbike within the streets of Tehran on Aug. 7, the Times reported.
The killing of Masri, who was seen as a probable successor to al Qaeda’s present chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was stored secret till now, the newspaper mentioned.
It was unclear what, if any, position the United States had within the killing of the Egyptian-born terrorist, the Times mentioned. U.S. authorities had been monitoring Masri and different al Qaeda operatives in Iran for years, it mentioned.
Al Qaeda has not introduced his dying, Iranian officers have lined it up and no authorities has publicly claimed duty, the Times mentioned.
Iran on Saturday denied the report, saying there have been no al Qaeda “terrorists” on its soil.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh mentioned in an announcement that the United States and Israel typically “try to tie Iran to such groups by lying and leaking false information to the media in order to avoid responsibility for the criminal activities of this group and other terrorist groups in the region”.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “scare-mongering tactic against Iran has become routine,” Khatibzadeh mentioned.
A U.S. official, chatting with Reuters on situation of anonymity, declined to substantiate any particulars of the Times’ story or say whether or not there was any U.S. involvement. The White House National Security Council didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Masri, one in every of al Qaeda’s founding leaders, was killed alongside together with his daughter, the widow of former al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden, the Times reported.
Osama bin Laden orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults on the United States and was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011.
Shi’ite Iran and al Qaeda have lengthy been enemies.
Masri had been in Iran’s “custody” since 2003 however had been residing freely in an upscale suburb of Tehran since 2015, the Times cited unnamed U.S. intelligence officers as saying.
U.S. counterterrorism officers imagine Iran, additionally a U.S. enemy, could have let him reside there to conduct operations in opposition to U.S. targets, the Times mentioned.
It was not instantly recognized what, if any, influence Masri’s dying has had on al Qaeda’s actions. Even because it has misplaced senior leaders within the practically 20 years because the assaults on New York and Washington, it has maintained lively associates from the Middle East to Afghanistan to West Africa.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PreetiJha 
Vaibhav Kapoor