An al Qaeda originalThe death of Al-Masri, whose real name was Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, deprives al Qaeda of one of its best planners and most experienced operatives. Al-Masri was a "charter" member of al Qaeda, according to documents recovered from Afghanistan by US investigators in 2001. In or around 2005, his daughter Miriam married Hamza bin Laden (they were both teenagers at the time) in the Tehran compound where the al Qaeda contingent were detained. Some analysts saw al-Masri as a possible successor to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. He told CNN Saturday, "Al Qaeda have lost one of their founding fathers and their most experienced and capable operational planner."

Source: CNN November 14, 2020 16:52 UTC