Summary Al-Masri is a son-in-law of Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The American government is investigating whether Al-Qaeda’s number two has been killed in Syria, an official told AFP Tuesday, amid reports of a US strike in or around Idlib.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that agencies were working to confirm whether Abu Khayr al-Masri is dead, in what would be a major counterterrorism coup for Donald Trump early in his presidency.
Al-Masri is a son-in-law of Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and is believed to be deputy to the group’s current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
"Certainly if the reports are true it would be welcome news," said Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis.
Trump has put tackling so-called "radical Islamic extremism" at the top of his political agenda.
He is currently considering a review of the fight against the Daesh group, aiming to intensify the campaign and is poised to revive efforts to ban travels from certain Muslim-majority countries.
The revised travel ban could come as early as Wednesday, White House officials said.
Egypt-born al-Masri, 59, is one of the most prominent figures in Al-Qaeda to have roots in the era before the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to the Soufan Group, a private security and intelligence consultancy.
"It was in al-Masri’s guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed briefed top Al-Qaeda leaders about the planning of the September 11, 2001 attacks," the Soufan Group said.
His presence in Syria’s northwestern Idlib underscores the importance that country has gained in Al-Qaeda’s strategy, analysts said.
Al-Masri, also known as Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abdulrahman, joined Zawahiri in the Egyptian militant group in the 1980s before they enlisted with Bin Laden in the 1990s.
US intelligence believe al-Masri was involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
He was detained with several other Al-Qaeda figures in 2003 in Iran and held until 2015, when they were traded for the release of an Iranian diplomat who had been seized by Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch.
Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute said that if al-Masri’s death is confirmed, would be the "biggest blow to Al-Qaeda since the killing of Nasir al-Wuhayshi in Yemen in June 2015."
Wuhayshi was the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Lister described al-Masri as a longstanding member of Al-Qaeda’s central Shura Council and "one of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s closest long-time confidants."
His death would "almost certainly necessitate some form of response, whether from Syria or elsewhere in the world," he said.
According to Treasury Department sanctions al-Masri was previously responsible for coordinating Al-Qaeda’s work "with other terrorist organizations."
He was born in the Nile Delta city of Kafr al-Shaykh in November 1957, in the midst of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule.
