By Greg Miller and Craig Whitlock - Washington Post
Al-Qaedas third-ranking operative an Egyptian who was a founding member of the terrorist network and a key conduit to Osama bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan according to a statement Monday from al-Qaeda that U.S. intelligence officials believe is accurate.
A U.S. official said there is strong reason to believe that Mustafa Abu al-Yazid known as Sheik Saeed al-Masri apparently was killed by a CIA drone strike in Pakistans tribal belt within the past two weeks.
The official described it as a significant victory against the terrorist group.
Al-Masri was the groups chief operating officer with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning the official said. He was also the organizations prime conduit to bin Laden and Zawahiri he added referring to al-Qaedas No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was key to al-Qaedas command and control.
Yazid 54 was an original member of al-Qaedas Shura leadership council an al-Qaeda commander for Afghanistan and served as an adviser to bin Laden for more than 15 years. More recently he was the groups chief organizational manager in charge of finances and logistics as well as a liaison to the Taliban and other extremist groups.
Yazid was part of the Egyptian contingent that has dominated al-Qaedas leadership since the networks founding. He and Zawahiri served time in prison in the early 1980s for their role as conspirators in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
The 9/11 Commission identified Yazid as al-Qaedas chief financial manager and said he opposed the Sept. 11 2001 hijackings because he feared the U.S. response to the attack. He stayed loyal to bin Laden however and took on an increasingly important role in the network after the deaths of other senior leaders in recent years.
Previous reports of Yazids death proved unfounded. Some Pakistani military officials said he was killed in August 2008 in the Bajaur tribal area. Fourteen months later Pakistani media reported he was killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan. Not long after Yazid appeared in videos posted on the Internet by al-Qaeda.
One senior Pakistani official sounded a note of caution saying: There have been so many wrong calls bad calls on him before were not confirming it now.
But the U.S. official said of the latest report: In terms of level of confidence its very high.
The al-Qaeda statement released Monday did not give details of Yazids death. Although many of the networks members have been incorrectly reported dead in the past by U.S. and Pakistani officials al-Qaedas official announcements regarding the martyrdom of its senior leaders have been highly reliable.
The death of Yazid would represent one of the most significant blows against al-Qaeda since the CIA began a major escalation in the pace of drone strikes in 2008 which has been accelerated under President Obama.
Yazid went into hiding after the Sept. 11 attacks and waited nearly six years to reemerge appearing in a May 2007 video in which he was described as the commander of al-Qaedas operations in Afghanistan. Security analysts said he has overseen the groups global fundraising efforts as well as recruitment.
Unlike his fellow Egyptian Zawahiri who has a reputation as a polarizing figure Islamic radicals have described Yazid as an amiable and popular leader within the movement who was able to serve as a bridge between factions.
Staff writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
