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Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan, aka Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti, was reportedly killed in a drone strike while eating breakfast in Pakistan.
A senior al-Qaida official and potential successor to the group’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed Friday morning in a Predator drone strike, according to reports on jihadi web forums and U.S. officials.
Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan, aka Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti, was killed in Pakistan while eating breakfast, according to the accounts. The 46-year-old cleric was seen as part of the “very top tier" of al-Qaida's remaining leaders in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden, according to one expert on the terror group.
The news was first announced on an al-Qaida web forum early Friday. “We celebrate to you the news of the martyrdom of the working scholar Shaykh Khalid al-Hussainan (Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti) while eating his Suhoor (dawn time) meal, and we ask Allah to accept him in paradise," a post said.
Evan Kohlmann, an NBC News counterterrorism analyst, said al-Hussainan was at the forefront of a new wave of al-Qaida leadership.
“That's a big gap in the leadership,” said Kohlmann, who is also a Justice Department consultant. “He was the last senior Al-Qaida leader in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area who was, one, from the Arabian Peninsula and, two, who had serious clerical credentials. Now there is no obvious publicly recognizable candidate left to succeed Zawahiri.”
In recent years, al-Hussainan was seen in numerous al-Qaida videos offering religious training to the group’s operatives. The videos were widely circulated by al-Shabab, al-Qaida’s media wing. He also authored several books of religious thoughts.
The U.S. killed three other up-and-coming members of the terror group’s next generation leadership in the months after bin Laden was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs in May 2011. Ilyas Kashmiri, the leader of a Pakistani group associated with al-Qaeda was killed June 3. Atiyah Abd-al Rahman, bin Laden’s chief of staff, was killed on Aug. 22 and Ayman al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who was a leader of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed Sept. 30. US officials say that hints about their whereabouts were found in materials gathered by the Navy SEALs in the raid on bin Laden’s compound.
Al-Hussainan is the highest ranking al-Qaida official to be killed since those leaders were killed.
Mike Leiter, the former director of the National Counter Terrorism Center and an NBC News analyst, said it’s important to keep going after top officials to keep al-Qaida off balance.
“We are taking out the generation following those left from the 9-11 era leadership,” Leiter said. “If you can get into this level of leadership consistently, it becomes very difficult for al-Qaida in Pakistan to become a serious threat to the homeland.”
The fact that the attack was carried out by a Predator shows that the US intends to keep using the drones to kill al-Qaida, despite criticism from Pakistani officials and U.S. critics, said Roger Cressey, former deputy director of the White House counter terrorism center and an NBC News analyst.
“Anyone who believes that the drone program has run its course needs to know that people like al Kuwaiti are still out there,” he said.
Robert Windrem is a senior investigative producer for NBC News.
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Finally some good news...
Ha...love these comments.
bye as$hole.
I was thinking what a shame it is that the drones haven't visited those two dirt-bags Ayman al-Zawahiri and the other loser Mullah Omar, but maybe this is even better. Just think of those two pieces of scum watching every single day and night for their opportunity, which is coming no doubt, for their "visit" from the drone. Makes me smile.
This is how to fight terrorism, not with boots on the ground.
He was last saying, "does anyone hear a plane or it is me?"
LOL
Happy Days! Seeing as how Allah doesn't accept murderers, terrorists and other monkeys, we are in complete compliance with universal reality in turning in the piece of islamic pig sh*t!
Death came to breakfast. So long dirtbag.
Enjoy your virgins you POS. May the fleas of 10 million camels infest your rotting body.
a scholar! i think not: just another individual trying to keep their religion and his beliefs alive! we no longer live in a prehistoric world. this is a modern era and the sooner these aboriginal neanderthals understand this the better for them. in other words go home to your grandchildren and your families so you can attempt to enjoy the remaining of your useless existence.
Do the US Drones know where Pakistan president Karzai lives ????????
Die you piece of @!$%#!
Every Al qaeda leader could use a drone for breakfast. I love drones. Hitting them from the top down is good!
Keep up the good work.
Ya gotta love the surprise. A missile for breakfast.
I really don't give a damn if it's legal or illegal to kill off these scumbags. Eliminating them is all well and good but there's still Al Quida's Number 2 under Bin Laden who hasn't been vaporized yet. Something tells me that he's the critical link to everyone else's early demise. Once we run out of the second tier,....it's back to the new head honcho Al Zawari, the Egypian born physican who masterminded 9/11. I'd like to see his head rolling down a hill. They know where he is and are simply letting him sweat a little after they kill off the weaker links.
see what happens to killers of poppies! you get droned by the extractors. god bless opium and usa. without it the taliban wait , al-Qaida jihadis joeths would just be farmers that were able to almost eliminate those pesty red flowers for ever. O well somebody must stop this madness but and well....we have a expert on the war on drugs wait, terror groups says the 46 yr old cleric was SEEN as very top tier. Humm guess they didnt know for sure so you know the rest.
I wish they would get are guys outta there, what a nightmare and they are just following orders. good luck to the ones that are there and BIG RESPECT to the ones that go back to show the ones who are going there how to stay alive.
I hope it was a direct strike that blew him and his buddies into a million piecies.
This is the MasterCard that bought the fuel to hunt him down ,this is the MasterCard that bought the smart bomb that killed the dirt-bag PRICELESSSSSSSSSSSSS.
How about a side of shrapnel with your morning kashi, @!$%#!!!
Actually, rumor has it they have run out of virgins and have to substitute goats.
Goats?? ... that's just one more thing for these neanderthals to celebrate
Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan, aka Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti, was killed in Pakistan - Pakistan? I think drones need bigger bombs.
The news was first announced on an al-Qaida web forum early Friday. “We celebrate to you the news of the martyrdom".
Right on al-Quida. We celebrate the news also.
The answer was to clear and was right in front of us all along!!! We kill all of the radical jihadist terrorists scum .... they celebrate martyrdom and we celebrate the fact that their asses have been vaporized ... it's a win-win!!! Damn ... I just KNEW we could find common ground if we only looked hard enough!!!
Exactly right Gary. Both sides can enjoy this. Maybe the drones will help America & the terrorists find peace with each other. It would be helpful if the terrorists could have a group meeting & let us know about it. We then could send hordes of them off to Paradise. The more of em on the fast track to Paradise, the merrier for everyone. Everybody's happy. Especially the guy with the fake red beard.
How does the song go?
So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goooooooodbyeeeeeeee!
Damn, we killed the hobbit leader.
More like the guy on the Zig Zag rolling paper company.
NO he was one of the dwarves that got lost trying to find the treasure. Just substitute the dragon with a drone and poof its a modern tale of the Hobbit minus the cool sound track.
We celebrate his martyrdom as well.
Kudo's to the U.S. military.
Thank you for making us safer President Obama
Others had no intention or were full of neglect to let it happen in the first place
Bush dropped the ball on 9/11
Bull@!$%#!!! Grow up, dickweed.
Some people just hate the truth :)
Rob99 - Take your meds.
No. gary needs them the most.
Do me a favor and don't show the image of these murdering scumbag buzzards. They don't deserve their face on any news page, just describe him as a red bearded sand flea.