Mustafa Abu al-Yazid — Al Qaeda’s co-founder and third in command, as well as the operational leader in Afghanistan — has been killed in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area, according to a statement attributed to the terror network that was posted on Islamist websites. Yazid, who was also Al Qaeda’s financial director, was allegedly killed by a missile-carrying drone, according to a senior U.S. official. A different official said that “in terms of counterterrorism this would be a big victory,” as Yazid “was key to Al Qaeda’s command and control,” making this loss “in some respects … more important for Al Qaeda operations than if [Osama] bin Laden or [Ayman] Zawahiri was killed.”
