Israel, US worked together to kill Al-Qaeda's second-in-command in Tehran: Report

The United States and Israel reportedly worked together in killing Al-Qaeda's second-in-command in Iran. According to the New York Times, Israeli operatives, who were working with their US counterparts in tracking Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, gunned down the Al-Qaeda terrorist in the streets of Tehran on August 7. However, no government has claimed responsibility for the killing and Al-Qaeda is yet to announce his death. 

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Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who worked under the alias Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was allegedly the mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa and was seen as a likely successor to the group's current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Abdullah was reportedly killed along with his daughter, who was the widow of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden's son. Abdullah was in Iran's custody since 2003, but the NYT citing a US intelligence official as a source said he was living freely in Tehran since 2015. Israeli secretive unit Kidon, which comes under the spy organisation Mossad, was involved in killing Abdullah. 

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Iran denies reports of Masri's killing

According to the report, Abdullah and his daughter were killed by two bike-borne assailants on August 7, and on August 8 the Iranian state media reported an unusual killing of a Lebanese man and his daughter in northern Tehran. 

However, Iran on Saturday, November 14 "categorically denied" reports that a senior Al-Qaeda member had been killed in the country. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh, while referring to the New York Times report about the killing of Al-Qaeda's second-in-command in Tehran, denied any presence of the terrorist group’s members in Iran. 

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Saeed Khatibzadeh accused the United States and Israel of feeding made-up information to the media and advised journalists to be cautious of being "entrapped by the Hollywood-style scenarios fabricated by the US and the Zionist regime’s officials".

Iran also blamed the failed policies of the United States and its allies in the region for creating Al-Qaeda. Tehran alleged that the false accusations leveled by Washington are part of the broader "economic, intelligence, and psychological war" that it has waged against the Iranian people since the current administration took over in 2017. 

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(Image Credit: AP)