U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters in Iraq on Friday that a senior al Qaeda commander was recently killed in a U.S. airstrike.
Mr. Carter said Abu Khalil Al-Sudani was killed July 11 in eastern Afghanistan along with two other “violent extremists,” The Associated Press reported. The terrorist was the head of al Qaeda’s suicide and explosive operations at the time of his death.
“Al-Sudani was directly linked to external attack plotting against the United States and directed operations against the coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces,” a U.S. military official told AP. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide information on the subject.
The official added that Al-Sudani fought alongside Osama bin Laden after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The two men were close prior to the terror mastermind’s death.
“The death of Al-Sudani will further degrade al Qaeda command-and-control operations across the globe,” the official said, AP reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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