Saleh al-Somali, born Abdirizaq Abdi Saleh,[1] was described as being an al-Qaeda leader and the group's head of external operations.[1][2][3][4] He was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned predator drone on 8 December 2009. The missile strike was on a suspect compound in Janikhel village near Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, today a part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Saleh al-Somali | |
---|---|
Died | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan | 8 December 2009
Nationality | Somali |
Occupation | Alleged al Qaida operational planner |
Known for | Killed by a missile strike |
Initially the identity of the senior al Qaida leader reported killed was not made public.[2] But on 11 December 2009 ABC News quoted a US security official who said: "There are strong indications that senior al Qaeda operations planner Saleh al-Somali has been killed".[5]
Abdirizaq Abdi Saleh, better known by his nom de guerre Saleh al-Somali, was a member of al-Qaida's senior leadership, said the official, and "probably responsible" for planning and executing attacks in the U.S. and Europe.
The senior al Qaeda operative killed in a drone strike in Pakistan earlier this week was Saleh al-Somali, a major operations planner for the terrorist group, ABC News has learned.
Senior al-Qaida operatives Saleh al-Somali and Abdallah Sa'id were killed in airstrikes in December.
These raids have ravaged the top tier of al-Qaeda's lieutenants. The victims include Saleh al-Somali, the chief of external operations, who was killed Dec. 8; Abdullah Said al-Libi, the chief of operations in Pakistan, who was killed Dec. 17; and Tahir Yuldashev, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who was killed in August.