Officials: Al Qaeda No. 3 Killed
EmailUS officials tell ABC News that al Qaeda’s No. 3 — Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu al-Yazid, known as Shaikh Sa’id al-Masri and Mustafa Abu al-Yazid – has been killed. Al Qaeda released a eulogy of Shaikh Sa’id tonight, officials said.
"Word is spreading in extremist circles of the death of Sheikh Sa'id al-Masri, widely viewed as the number three figure in al-Qaeda,” a US official told ABC News. “We have strong reason to believe that's true, and that al-Masri was killed recently in Pakistan's tribal areas. In terms of counterterrorism, this would be a big victory.”
US officials believed him to have been killed about a week ago in Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri are the spiritual founders, and considered No. 1 and No. 2 of al Qaeda list, but Shaikh Sa’id is considered the link between those two and rest of the operation, and for all intents and purposes the one running the organization day to day.
"Al-Masri was the group's chief operating officer,” the official said, “with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning. He was also the organization's prime conduit to Bin Ladin and Zawahiri. He was key to al-Qaeda's command and control.”
Shaikh Sa’id is the senior most al Qaeda official killed under President Obama, the officials said. An Egyptian, Shaikh Sa’id was formerly the chief financial officer of al Qaeda. The Sept. 11 Commission said that internally he argued against the 9/11 attacks "because he feared the U.S. response to an attack."
Three years ago, Al Jazeera ran a tape of Shaikh Sa’id presenting himself as the leader of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. He’s been promoted since then as those above him have been killed off.
The official said Shaikh Sa’id's "death would be a major blow to al-Qaeda, which in December lost both its internal and external operations chiefs." (A reference to the killings of Abdullah Said and Saleh al-Somali, respectively.)
"Though these terrorists remain extremely dangerous and determined to strike at the United States, the removal from the battlefield of top leaders like al-Masri is further proof that the tribal areas are not quite the safe haven al-Qaeda and its allies thought them to be," the official said.
- Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos
White House Loves Aggressive Journalism ... Abroad 
Virginia Ultrasound Bill Hits Nerve
So what? I think we’ve killed the “number two man in Al Qaeda” at least four times now, and Bush’s Iraq campaign “turned the corner” so many times I lost count (maybe it was an octagon). Victory comes from getting our men and women home from Iraq and Afghanistan and limiting terrorist attacks (yes limiting – we’ll never stop them, we can’t even keep depressed teens from using guns to slaughter classmates).
Posted by: jhw539 | May 31, 2010, 10:33 pm 10:33 pm
Be careful jwh539, some idiot chickenhawk conservative will come along and say you hate your country for not caring about this!
I agree, we’ve killed so many higher-ups in Al Qaeda over the years and yet they still function that I can’t pay much attention to it anymore. Doesn’t seem to have any measurable effect.
Posted by: PaulieVegas | May 31, 2010, 10:55 pm 10:55 pm
This is the 17th #3 killed. Good work US!
Posted by: Rafael | May 31, 2010, 10:58 pm 10:58 pm
hey JHW539, thanks for attempting to speak for us in the military who fought. you don’t know what you are talking about but nice try anyway.
victory comes when we can return home and no longer worry that our fellow country men are targets in our own country by those who have perverted a religion and imposed their totalitarian on those they conquer.
we can talk about it more when you come join us in actually doing something about the evil in world, or would that interrupt your Daily Show watching?
Posted by: jcrue | May 31, 2010, 11:13 pm 11:13 pm
This is the 17th #3 killed. Good work US!
Posted by: Rafael | May 31, 2010 10:58:08 PM
_____________________________________
There are a lot of #3′s in the arabic numberic system.
Posted by: tierra | May 31, 2010, 11:14 pm 11:14 pm
The intelligence community’s ability to figure out what this guy’s name is is impressive in itself.
Posted by: Huh | May 31, 2010, 11:14 pm 11:14 pm
* numeric
Posted by: tierra | May 31, 2010, 11:15 pm 11:15 pm
It’s nice that we got #3. But I think it’s long past due that we got #1 and #2.
Posted by: James | May 31, 2010, 11:25 pm 11:25 pm
Damn Right ,Bombs Away ,Light those suckers up,30 seconds over Pakistan, Empty those bomb raks, No mercy
Posted by: Jim | June 1, 2010, 12:28 am 12:28 am
I can only hope and trust that no other nation will use drones in America. Is it humane? How many innocent people were killed along with Shaikli Sa’ids?
Posted by: Agnes | June 1, 2010, 12:31 am 12:31 am
Now thata the U.S. has taken care of most of the top ten with a bullet, control of the Talib…I mean Al Qaeda is a mere formality and we can bring troops home right? Oh yeah, I forgot about the oil pipeline resource plunder that the U.S. is engaged in.
Posted by: tired | June 1, 2010, 12:33 am 12:33 am
The intelligence community’s ability to figure out what this guy’s name is is impressive in itself.
Posted by: louis vuitton | June 1, 2010, 3:32 am 3:32 am
I can only hope and trust that no other nation will use drones in America. Is it humane? How many innocent people were killed along with Shaikli Sa’ids?
Posted by: Chanel | June 1, 2010, 3:33 am 3:33 am
Just siting here pondering?, Have any of you people ever been in a situation , place or circumstance that put your live in danger? Just wondering. I know I can sit and think about 162 men that were killed in one afternoon in Vietnam. I can’t forget, I am 64 years old now, I have been married for 37 of those years and my wife has beeen through every gut wrenching momrent on my bad days, the rest I just hide in my soul. I wonder what most people think when they watch the war news? Generally the people around the key figures killed are not someone just stopping by to pick up a paper or buy a cup of coffee. The innocents dont have the money or the power to be aound these guys. The guys we we are talking about have the equivalent protection of the secret service. No one making a living, honestly, has an inclination or the time, they are too busy making a living and worried about their families ! May seem like b.s. to you but if want to go check it out I am sure you will have an opinion. It is easy to toss darts from 5,000 miles awasy. Try to do that old American Indian saying, don’t judge me till you walk a mile in my shoes. Any body out there wanta hunker on down and share a pouncho in the middle of a DARK DANGEROUS NIGHT? I guarantee you one thing, Don’t matter what color, what religion, you are. I dont care if my fo9s hole budy pats me on the ass when its my turn to watch. Lets just get the bad guys. There is only One way an innocent gets killed in any strike. They chose to live next door to danger. If the religous right from any country gets involved, christian or muslim, its like throwing gasoline on the fire. Life is life and Man kind is not at their best when religion or politics are involvede.
Posted by: Howard | June 1, 2010, 3:57 am 3:57 am
Great job President Obama!
Uhmm, You knowI would have caught this guy also. You remember right? all that hyper-talk about “dead or alive”… LOL .. but, then I got bogged down in Iraq.
I did catch that other guy though… Saddam Hussein… wasn’t he one of the 9-11 planners?
Posted by: GeorgieBushie | June 1, 2010, 7:53 am 7:53 am
A drone attack to kill an Al-Queda leader that also kills his wife, three
daughters, a grandchild and other men, women and children is immoral. How
would the US populace respond to such attacks? just as the Afghan people
are with anger. Killing terrorists is one thing killing their families and
civilians another.
Posted by: Glenn Friedman | June 1, 2010, 9:14 am 9:14 am
It was pointed out earlier that a #3 has been killed at least several times. I’m afraid that regardless of the number of times a #1,2,or 3 is taken down, a comparable successor can quickly take their place. The torch just keeps getting passed to others and younger generations with both the higher level executions and with especially the incidental killings of innocent men, women, and children. It’s similar to a metastasis.
Posted by: jane | June 1, 2010, 10:39 am 10:39 am
Another Muslim Extremist Dead.
Big points for you today President Obama!
Today is a better day than Yesterday.
Let’s make tomorrow better than today.
Kill another one Mr. President.
Posted by: Noz | June 1, 2010, 11:14 am 11:14 am
“A drone attack to kill an Al-Queda leader that also kills his wife, three
daughters, a grandchild and other men, women and children is immoral.”
Al Queda leaders are known and active targets in a war. It is immoral for them to use family and innocents as shields.
Posted by: Sigmonde | June 1, 2010, 11:16 am 11:16 am
Being number three in Al-Qaeda is like wearing the red shirt in Star Trek. These militants should be number 4 or 5. 3 is just really bad luck it seems.
Posted by: Huh | June 1, 2010, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
They are like termites. You kill one and another squirms out of the woodwork. We gotta tent the whole structure and gas them. Any exterminator will tell you that is the ONLY way.
Posted by: Bob | June 1, 2010, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
Good lord, we killed #3 again? #3 appears to be highly replacable.
Posted by: Jenn | June 1, 2010, 6:26 pm 6:26 pm
Yeah, how many times has this one been killed already? Like so many of them that seem to be killed and captured again and again and again like all Americans will not remember their names….
Posted by: W. Wallace | June 1, 2010, 7:06 pm 7:06 pm