Senior Al Qaeda Leader Killed in Drone Strike<br />In 2005, the United States Treasury Department described Mr. Masri as a Qaeda associate and said<br />that he "was responsible for coordinating Al Qaeda’s work with other terrorist organizations." The drone strike against Mr. Masri came about a month after an Air Force B-52 bomber carried out a punishing airstrike against a training camp of Al Qaeda in Syria, which the Pentagon said killed about 100 militants.<br />Since then, Mr. Masri had operated in Syria as Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, providing orders<br />and advice to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the Qaeda affiliate in Syria formerly known as the Nusra Front, and its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, Mr. Lister said.<br />Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and an expert on the war in Syria, said in an email<br />that the death of Mr. Masri was the most significant blow to Al Qaeda’s global network since the killing of Nasir al-Wuhayshi, Al Qaeda’s No.<br />By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITTMARCH 1, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — A senior official of Al Qaeda was killed on Sunday in Syria by a United States drone strike, an American official said on Wednesday.<br />A veteran of jihadist conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Egypt<br />and Pakistan, he was a longtime member of Al Qaeda’s highly secretive Shura Council, and he was the terrorist group’s key intermediary with its affiliates and other jihadist groups across the world, Mr. Lister said.<br />in the world," Mr. Lister said. that jihadi royalty, meaning his death will almost<br />certainly necessitate some form of response, whether from Syria or elsewhere<br />Photographs of the vehicle Mr. Masri was said to be traveling in when attacked reveal unusual details for such a strike: The vehicle sustained no major explosive damage,<br />but a projectile clearly struck it directly through the car roof.
