Ahmad Hasan Abu al-Khayr al-Masri أحمد حسن أبو الخير المصري | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Emir ofAl-Qaeda | |
| In office 12 June 2015 – 26 February 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Nasir al-Wuhayshi |
| Succeeded by | Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Abdullah Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Rajab Abd al-Rahman (1957-11-03)3 November 1957 |
| Died | 26 February 2017(2017-02-26) (aged 59)[1] |
| Occupation | Deputy leader ofal-Qaeda |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Al-Qaeda (1990s–2017) |
Abdullah Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Rajab Abd al-Rahman (Arabic:عبد الله عبد الرحمن محمد رجب عبد الرحمن), known asAhmad Hasan Abu al-Khayr al-Masri (Arabic:أحمد حسن أبو الخير المصري), (3 November 1957 – 26 February 2017) was anEgyptian al-Qaeda leader who has been described as the general deputy to al-Qaeda leaderAyman al-Zawahiri.[3][4][5]
Al-Masri was a member ofEgyptian Islamic Jihad alongsideAyman al-Zawahiri and fled the country in the mid-1980s along with many other Islamic militants.He headed al-Qaeda's political committee and was a member of the Shura Council. He has been described as operating as a "trusted lieutenant" of the leader ofal-Qaeda,Ayman al-Zawahiri with whom al-Masri worked inSudan andAfghanistan.[6]
He leftAfghanistan after theSeptember 11 attacks and prior to theUnited States invasion of Afghanistan. He fled toIran, where he was arrested inSistan and Baluchestan province in April 2003.[7] Also arrested alongside him were other senior al-Qaeda leaders includingSaif al-Adel,Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah andSulaiman Abu Ghaith. According to a statement that Sulaiman Abu Ghaith gave to theFederal Bureau of Investigation, four al-Qaeda leaders were first jailed in an Iranian intelligence building inTehran for approximately one year and eight months.[8]
In September 2015 it was reported that Abu Khayr al-Masri was released by Iran in March 2015 together with other al-Qaeda leaders including Saif al-Adel and Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah in a prisoner exchange.[9] He was reported to have then traveled toSyria with three men to join the Al-Nusra Front branch of al-Qaeda.[6]
On 28 July 2016, the Al-Minaret al-Bayda media wing of theSyrian al-Qaeda branchJabhat al-Nusra released an audio message from him claiming that the Nusra front had cut all connections with al-Qaeda and renamed it the Fateh al-Sham Front.[6]
Reports surfaced on 26 February 2017 that al-Masri had been killed in a U.S. airstrike in his car inAl-Mastumah in the Syrian province ofIdlib.[10] There was no immediate official confirmation from either the United States or al-Qaeda.[6][11]Guardian journalists Tom McCarthy and Martin Chulov later reported that jihadist leaders confirmed that al-Masri was killed in the drone strike.[12] The airstrike also killed anotherTahrir al-Sham militant traveling in the car.[2][1] A US intelligence official and al-Qaeda later confirmed that al-Masri had been killed in the strike, which used a variant of theAGM-114 Hellfire missile.[13][14][15][16] This weapon, known as the AGM-114 R9X, lacks an explosive warhead. Instead, it deploys six blades just before impact so it may kill its target while reducing the likelihood of harm to people nearby.[17]
