'Al-Qaeda's second-in-command killed in Pak' | World News - Hindustan Times
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'Al-Qaeda's second-in-command killed in Pak'

AP | By, Washington
Aug 28, 2011 01:05 AM IST

A senior Obama administration official says al Qaida No. 2 leader, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan.

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the US believes to be on the verge of defeat, US officials said Saturday.

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Since Navy SEALs stormed Osama bin Laden's compound and killed him in May, the Obama administration has been unusually frank in its assessment that Al-Qaeda is on the ropes, its leadership in disarray. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last month that Al-Qaeda's defeat was within reach if the US could mount a string of successful attacks.

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"Now is the moment, following what happened with bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on them," Panetta said, "because I do believe that if we continue this effort we can really cripple Al-Qaeda as a major threat."

A Libyan national, al-Rahman never had the worldwide name recognition of bin Laden or bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. But al-Rahman was regarded as an instrumental figure in the terrorist organization, trusted by bin Laden to oversee Al-Qaeda's daily operations.

When the SEALs raided bin Laden's compound, they found evidence of al-Rahman's deep involvement in running Al-Qaeda.
Senior Al-Qaeda figures have been killed before, only to be replaced. But the Obama administration's tenor reflects a cautious optimism that victory in the decade-long fight against Al-Qaeda could be at hand.

"It does hold the prospect of a strategic defeat, if you will, a strategic dismantling, of Al-Qaeda," incoming CIA Director David Petraeus said in July.

Since bin Laden's death, counterterrorism officials have hoped to capitalize on Al-Qaeda's unsettled leadership. The more uncertain the structure, the harder it is for Al-Qaeda to operate covertly and plan attacks.

Al-Zawahiri is running the group but is considered a divisive figure who lacks the founder's charisma and ability to galvanize Al-Qaeda's disparate franchises.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to summarize the government's intelligence on al-Rahman, said al-Rahman's death will make it harder for Zawahiri to oversee what is considered an increasingly weakened organization.
"Zawahiri needed Atiyah's experience and connections to help manage Al-Qaeda," the official said.

Al-Rahman was killed Aug. 22 in the lawless Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, according to a senior administration who also insisted on anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.

The official would not say how al-Rahman was killed. But al-Rahman's death came on the same day that a CIA drone strike was reported in Waziristan. Such strikes by unmanned aircraft are Washington's weapon of choice for killing terrorists in the mountainous, hard-to-reach area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Al-Rahman has been thought to be dead before. Last year, there were reports that al-Rahman was killed in a drone strike; neither U.S. officials nor Al-Qaeda ever confirmed them. The officials who confirmed the death Saturday said it represented the consensus opinion of the US government.

Born in Libya, al-Rahman joined bin Laden as a teenager in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.

He once served as bin Laden's personal emissary to Iran. Al-Rahman was allowed to move freely in and out of Iran as part of that arrangement and has been operating out of Waziristan for some time, officials have said.

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