Abu Yahya Al-Libi, one of Al-Qaeda's top strategists and seen as the most prominent figure in the network after leader Ayman Al-Zawahri, may have been killed in a drone strike in Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence officials said Tuesday. If his death is confirmed it would be the biggest blow to Al-Qaeda since US special forces killed Osama Bin Laden in a secret raid in Pakistan in May 2011. US sources said Libi, a Libyan cleric with a degree in chemistry who has survived previous attacks by drone aircraft, was a target of a strike early Monday in northwest Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, home to some of the world's most notorious militant groups. Sajjan Gohel, chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation security research consultancy, said Libi was one of the few remaining key figures within Al-Qaeda's core. “Libi has also been at the center of Al-Qaeda's plans to reconstitute itself and try and remount a trans-national terror campaign. This is one of the reasons he was viewed as a high value target,” Gohel said. Pakistani intelligence officials said they believe Libi, which means Libyan in Arabic, may have been among seven foreign militants killed in Monday's strike by a drone aircraft. One of the officials said Pakistani authorities had intercepted telephone chatter about Libi. “We intercepted some conversations between militants. They were talking about the death of a ‘sheikh',” one of the Pakistani intelligence officials said.
