The confirmation came about a week after The New York Times first reported that the US believed it had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the al-Qaida leader, in January after months of tracing him. The White House statement had little detail about the operation but said it was carried out at the direction of President Donald Trump. The CIA learned of al-Rimi’s location from an informer in Yemen in November, allowing the government to begin tracking him with surveillance drones, an official said. Al-Rimi, 41, was among the few remaining al-Qaida leaders whose terrorist pedigree traces to the era before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. © 2019 New York Times News Service

Source: bd News24 February 07, 2020 05:15 UTC