Al-Qaeda have confirmed that senior leader Abu al-Khayr al-Masri has been killed by a US-led coalition drone strike in Syria.
A statement issued on Thursday by the militant group's Maghreb and Arabian Peninsula branches said he died in a "treacherous" drone strike it described as a "new crime by America and the crusader coalition".
A Hellfire missile fired by a CIA drone killed the al-Qaeda leader on Sunday while he was riding in a car near the northwest Syrian city of Idlib, a US intelligence official had said on Wednesday.
Al-Masri, 59, was a member of al-Qaeda's shura council and second-in-command to its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said Masri had sought refuge in Iran after the September 11 attacks on the United States. He had been hunted by US forces for almost 19 years.
