Senior al-Qaeda leader 'killed' in Afghanistan

Al-Qaeda's number three leader and Afghan operations chief, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was slain, reports say.

Mr Yazid, aka Sheikh Said al-Masri, along with his deceased wife and three children, Islamist websites said, quoting a statement by al-Qaeda.

U.S. officials say they believe he was recently killed in tribal areas of Pakistan in a U.S. drone attack.

Previous reports of his death have been wrong, but this is the first time that Al-Qaeda has recognized such claims.

U.S. officials often refer to the Egyptian militant leader was born as the main channel for Osama bin Laden.

As operational commander of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, is believed to have had his hand in everything from finance to operational planning.
"Serious curse '

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there is "reasonable cause" to believe that Mr Yazid was slain in the tribal areas of Pakistan in the past two weeks.

U.S. monitoring groups said a message from Al-Qaida posted on Islamic forums on May 31 said the militant women, three of his daughters, his granddaughter, and other men, women and children, were slain.

The message was translated by the SITE group which monitors Islamist websites, gave no details about the circumstances of his death reported, other than to speak of his "martyrdom".

"His death will only be a serious curse his life on the unbelievers. The response is near. That's enough," said the message translated by SITE.

Mr Yazid is believed to have climbed to number three position in al-Qaeda in 2007, when his predecessor, Abu Ubaida al-Masri, died of hepatitis in Pakistan.

He would have managed the finances for September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

In a rare interview with Pakistan's Geo TV in 2008, he said al Qaeda was "good at" in those attacks, like the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

He condemned the Pakistani government to combat Islamic militants, justified suicide attacks and predicted victory for the Taliban and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.

He is believed to have been imprisoned in Egypt in 1982 in connection with the killing of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

last public statement from Mr Yazid was released on May 4, glorify the top two al Qaeda leaders in Iraq - Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri - who was slain in April.