GETTY The drone strike was further west then the US normally operate

FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

The jihadi leader, Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, is said to have been killed on Sunday night while he was riding in a car near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib.



Masri, an explosives expert, had been part of the terror group for three decades and married Osama Bin Laden’s daughter.

He was the ideological leader of the group in Iraq, Syria and Yemen Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based expert on Islamic groups

Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based expert on Islamic groups, said: “His death is no less significant than that of Bin Laden.



“He was the ideological leader of the group in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and the number two in the organisation overall.”

Death of Osama Bin Laden: In Pictures Mon, May 2, 2011 In pictures: Death of Osama Bin Laden Play slideshow 1 of 21 Pakistanis burn flags in protest to the death of Osama Bin Laden

Masri was a veteran of jihadi conflicts in Egypt, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is alleged he was involved in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, in which more than 200 people, mostly civilians, died.



Charles Lister, a leading Washington-based analyst of the Syrian conflict, said: “As a long-time member of al-Qaida’s central Shura council and one of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s closest long-time confidants, Abu al-Khayr was jihadi royalty.

“It means his death will almost certainly necessitate some form of response, whether from Syria or elsewhere in the world.”



Lister added: “[He] was the terrorist group’s key intermediary with its affiliates and other jihadi groups across the world. His marriage to one of Osama bin Laden’s daughters placed him at the beating heart of al-Qaida early on.”

GETTY Masri had fought alongside Osama Bin Laden

Al-Qaida has been trying to use the chaos of the Syrian war to establish a new base.



Masri had been under house arrest in Iran but two years ago he was exchanged for a diplomat being held hostage in Yemen.

GETTY The Syrian conflict is the ideal hotbed for established terror cells to operate