Al-Qaida third in command 'killed in Pakistan'
Updated on 01 June 2010
As a military drone is reported to have killed al-Qaida third in command Sheikh Sa'id al-Masri, Nick Paton Walsh explains that another key al-Qaida leader also died in fighting last week.
Al-Qaida says one of its key leaders has been killed in a drone attack by the US. A statement has been released by the terror network's high command saying Sheikh Sa'id al-Masri died along with members of his family in the tribal region of Pakistan last month.
Al-Masri, who is also known as Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was the group's operations chief, in charge of fundraising.
He has appeared in a number of propaganda videos for the group and his death would be a serious blow to the command structure of Al-Qaida. He has been a senior figure in the organisation for nearly three decades and is said to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
But associate fellow at Chatham House Dr Maha Azzam told Channel 4 News that the death of al-Masri, while significant to the top level of al-Qaida, would have little effect on the possibility of future attacks by the organisation.
She said: "Al-Masri served as the link between Osama bin Laden and the rest of al-Qaida but in recent years that leadership and its structures have become more and more isolated, yet attacks keep occuring. Splinter groups, who associate themselves with al-Qaida may now be further motivated to launch attacks as a show of strength."
Sheikh Sa'id al-Masri was born in Egypt in 1955 and is one of the founding members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad along with al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
He has been linked with a number of terrorist activities over the last 30 years including the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, the bombings of the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 and the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He is also alleged to have been involved in the killing of Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
Dr Azzam said that this killing may reinforce the belief in the United States that the use of unmanned drones is an effective way of waging war against al-Qaeda. But in Afghanistan and Pakistan the apparent killing may heighten fears about this method of fighting terrorists.
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Dr Azzam added: "Al-Masri only became third in command in 2007 following the death of his predecessor. Al-Qaida has shown previously that it is able to replace key figures when they need to. Al-Masri will be difficult to replace but it is likely someone is waiting to assume his position."
Unmanned drone attacks have become a key aspect of fighting in the tribal regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dr Fawaz Gerges, Professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics says the reason for this is not just the remoteness of the region.
He told Channel 4 News: "The CIA have been given carte blanche by the Obama administration to use drones to attack al-Qaida and the Taliban in Pakistan.
"They see the use of [these] planes as far more palatable for a US audience than boots on the ground. What they are not taking into consideration is what I call 'the blowback effect'.
"I strongly believe that this kind of attack versus conventional warfare has a far greater influence on the radicalisation of people sympathetic to the al-Qaida cause in the West."
He bases this on the evidence given by the failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad who said he was driven to action by the increase in drone attacks in recent months. Dr Gerges says an increase in the frequency of such attacks is likely.
The number of Predator drone attacks in Pakistan under Obama has increased fourfold compared to the Bush administration. While this latest attack appears to have killed a high level member of al-Qaida, Dr Gerges says many of those killed by the craft are low-level foot soldiers.
"The killing of militants in this way will play well in the US as soldiers are not in danger but in Pakistan the attack is seen very differently. Rather than talk about the killing of al-Qaeda number three the focus is on the deaths of women and children in the raid.
"There are growing calls within the US for drone attacks to be stopped as it increasingly becomes obvious that the tactic is serving to to increase anger and hostility toward the US."
