Israeli operatives secretly killed al Qaeda’s number two in Iran - NYT

Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah was killed by Israeli agents in a secret operation carried out  in Tehran, according to a New York Times report that Iran rejects as "made up.". 

The  Israeli operatives who killed the al Qaeda leader were acting at the behest of the United States, the Times report cited intelligence officials on Friday.

Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al Masri, was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle in the streets of Tehran on August 7, the Times reported.

The killing of Masri, who was seen as a likely successor to al Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, was kept secret until now, the newspaper said. The report had further said that al Qaeda has not announced his death, Iranian officials have covered it up and no government has publicly claimed responsibility.

Iran denies 'made-up' report

Denying the report, Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement later on Saturday that there were no al Qaeda "terrorists" on Iranian soil.

"From time to time, Washington and Tel Aviv try to tie Iran to such groups by lying and leaking made-up information to the media in order to avoid responsibility for the criminal activities of this group and other terrorist groups in the region," the ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement.

A US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to confirm any details of the Times’ story or say whether there was any US involvement. The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Masri, one of al Qaeda's founding leaders, was indicted in the US for the 1998 bombings of its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. He was killed along with his daughter, the widow of former al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden, the Times reported.

Osama bin Laden was leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist group that carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and was killed in a US raid in Pakistan in 2011.

Iran and al Qaeda have long been enemies.

Masri had been in Iran’s “custody” since 2003 but had been living freely in an upscale suburb of Tehran since 2015, the Times cited unnamed US intelligence officials as saying.

US counterterrorism officials believe Iran, also a US enemy, may have let them live there to conduct operations against US targets, the Times said.

It was not immediately known what, if any, impact Masri's death has had on al Qaeda's activities. 

Even as it has lost senior leaders in the nearly two decades since the attacks on New York and Washington, it has maintained active affiliates from the Middle East to Afghanistan to West Africa.