Al-Qaeda confirmed today that a US  drone strike had killed senior leader Abu al-Khayr al-Masri.

A Hellfire missile fired by a CIA drone killed the al-Qaeda leader late on Sunday while he was riding in a car near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib, a US intelligence official said.

Al-Masri was second-in-command to the group’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a member of its shura council, said the official.

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