WASHINGTON — CIA drone strikes have killed al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, and at least two other people in a rural village in northwest Pakistan in what U.S. officials called a major blow to the battered core leadership of the terrorist network.
The CIA had targeted al-Libi with three separate drone-launched missile attacks over three days, finally succeeding early Monday in strikes that destroyed a house and a vehicle, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.
The Libyan-born commander had escaped a U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan in 2005 and later used online video messages to urge attacks on the United States, burnishing a reputation among jihadists as a charismatic leader and a prolific propagandist.
But relations between the U.S. and Pakistan were further inflamed by this latest drone strike, part of a surge of Predator drone attacks in recent weeks. Pakistan’s government has repeatedly condemned the CIA aircraft for killing civilians and providing a recruiting tool for insurgents.
On Tuesday, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Deputy Ambassador Richard Hoagland to issue a formal protest.
The attacks “represented a clear red line for Pakistan,” the ministry said in a statement released to reporters. Hoagland “was informed that the drone strikes were unlawful, against international law and a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. Parliament had emphatically stated that they were unacceptable.”
Al-Libi, who was believed to be in his late 40s, was the second top al-Qaida deputy killed since U.S. Navy SEALs shot and killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May 2011.
Bin Laden’s longtime deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, initially named Atiyah Abdul Rahman as second in command. But a CIA drone missile killed Rahman in August, and al-Libi, another Libyan, was chosen as his replacement.
Al-Libi has not been publicly linked to a specific terrorist act but he “played a critical role in the group’s planning against the West, providing oversight of the external operations efforts,” according to a U.S. official who confirmed the death but was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
“Zawahri will be hard-pressed to find any one person who can readily step into (al-Libi’s) shoes,” the official said.
