WASHINGTON: A US air strike in Afghanistan has killed a high-ranking Al Qaeda operational commander, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The commander, Abu Khalil al-Sudani, was killed in a July 11 strike in the Bermal district of Afghanis­tan’s Paktika province, US military officials said.

Two other suspected Al Qaeda fighters were also killed in the same strike.

In a statement, the Pentagon said Sudani was the head of Al Qaeda’s “suicide and explosives operations” and was linked to plots to attack US targets.

He directed attacks against US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan as well as against Afghan and Pakistani forces, the Pentagon said.

“Abu Khalil al Sudani worked with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri for years. He was a member of Al Qaeda’s shura council and directed suicide operations. Osama bin Laden’s files reveal that he was one of Al Qaeda’s most trusted leaders,” reported a reliable US news site, The Long War Journal.

The Pentagon reported that another longtime Al Qaeda operative, Muhsin al-Fadhli, was also killed “in a kinetic strike” on July 8 while travelling in a vehicle near Sarmada, Syria.

Fadhli was the leader of a network of veteran Al Qaeda operatives called the Khorasan Group, and had operated in the Pak-Afghan region as well.

He was a senior Al Qaeda facilitator who was among the few trusted Al Qaeda leaders who received advance notification of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and also was involved in terrorist attacks that took place in October 2002, including against US Marines on Faylaka Island in Kuwait and on the French ship MV Limburg.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2015

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