US says airstrike killed al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan last month

The US Defense Department says an airstrike in Afghanistan last month killed al Qaeda’s top leader in the eastern part of the country.

The US Defense Department says an airstrike in Afghanistan last month killed al Qaeda’s top leader in the eastern part of the country.

An Afghan man inspects a house destroyed during clashes between Afghan security forces and Taliban in Kunduz. (Reuters)

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook has issued a written statement saying a precision strike conducted by the US military on October 23 in Kunar, Afghanistan, killed Faruq al-Qatani.

Cook says al-Qatani was one of al Qaeda’s “senior plotters of attacks against the United States.”

Cook says US officials are still working to determine whether a second strike on the same date killed its target, Bilal al-Utabi, another al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan.