Al-Qaeda has confirmed that top leader Abu Khayr al-Masri, believed to be the organisation's number two, was killed in an air strike in Syria, AFP reported Thursday (March 2nd)
In a statement two branches of the jihadist group, including the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), said al-Masri was killed by a drone strike in Syria.
Al-Masri is a son-in-law of Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and is believed to be Ayman al-Zawahiri's deputy.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said earlier this week that a February 26 coalition raid on the town of Mastumah in Idlib province had killed al-Masri.
