Al Qaeda op who worked on CIA attack killed

BBC:

A key al-Qaeda figure wanted for a deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan has been killed in a US drone strike, US officials believe.

Hussein al-Yemeni, a top al-Qaeda planner, died in the strike in the city of Miranshah in Pakistan, they said.

He was believed to have helped plan an attack on a base in Khost in December in which a suicide bomber killed seven CIA agents and a Jordanian officer.

The CIA's director has said al-Qaeda is now in disarray in Pakistan.

A US counter-terrorism official told Agence France-Presse news agency that the drone strike in Miranshah, in North Waziristan, was "a clean, precise action that shows these killers cannot hide even in relatively built-up places".

Yemeni was said to be in his late 20s or early 30s and specialised in "bombs and suicide operations", the official said.

"He was a conduit in Pakistan for funds, messages and recruits," he said.

Yemeni had contacts with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Afghan and Pakistani Taliban groups, US officials believe.

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These attacks have clearly disrupted al Qaeda's ability to plan and execute attacks. The attacks have been relentless since the strike against the CIA at Khost. It is the kind of campaign needed to destroy the enemy's ability to operate.