A US drone strike in Pakistan  has killed Al Qaeda’s  No. 2 leader Abu Yahya al-Libi, who helped steer the terrorist group after Osama bin Laden’s death, the White House has confirmed.
However, a senior Pakistan Taliban commander later told The Daily Telegraph that Libi was not caught in the attack. The commander claimed “The vehicle belonged to al-Libi but at the time he wasn’t in the vehicle.”  Another senior Pakistan Taliban commander, however, told Reuters that Libi was killed and described his death as a “big loss.
Al-Libi’s death was “another serious blow to core Al Qaeda,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday.
“His death is part of the degradation taking place in core Al Qaeda in the last several years.”
Al-Libi was a citizen of Libya, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram interim detention facility. At that time, American counter-terrorism analysts asserted that al-Libi was a member of al Qaeda. Al-Libi was one of several high-profile Bagram captives who escaped on the night of July 10, 2005.
Jarret Brachman, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), states of al-Libi:
“He’s a warrior. He’s a poet. He’s a scholar. He’s a pundit. He’s a military commander. And he’s a very charismatic, young, brash rising star within Al-Qaeda, and I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire global jihadist movement.”
However, Carney was unable to provide further details. Earlier Tuesday, US officials said that al-Libi was killed by a CIA drone strike in Pakistan launched Monday. Al-Libi’s death marks one of the most significant blows to Al Qaeda since the US military killed Osama bin Laden in a daring nighttime raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, near Islamabad on May 2 last year.
Al-Libi was second-in-command behind Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took the helm after bin Laden’s death.
“There is no one who even comes close in terms of replacing the expertise (Al Qaeda) has just lost,” CNN cited an unnamed US official as saying.
Al-Libi “played a critical role in the group’s planning against the West, providing oversight of the external operations efforts,” the official said adding, “Zawahiri will be hard-pressed to find any one person who can readily step into Abu Yahya’s shoes.”
“In addition to his gravitas as a longstanding member of AQ’s leadership, Abu Yahya’s religious credentials gave him the authority to issue fatwas, operational approvals and guidance to the core group in Pakistan and regional
affiliates.”
An Islamic scholar and high-ranking member of the group, al-Libi frequently appeared in Internet videos, CNN said. He gave many videotaped speeches praising Al Qaeda leaders, urging resistance and trying to recruit new members