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Al-Qaida No. 2 killed by US drone

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A U.S. drone strike in northern Pakistan has killed al-Qaida's second-in-command, American officials said Tuesday, the biggest success so far in the controversial military program and a significant setback to a terror network that has lost a string of top figures since the death of Osama bin Laden last year.Abu Yahya al-Libi was considered a media-savvy, charismatic leader with religious credentials who escaped from an American prison in Afghanistan and was helping preside over the transformation of al-Qaida from a close-knit group into an ideological movement aimed at winning converts - and potential attackers - around the world.White House spokesman Jay Carney called al-Libi's death a \major blow\ to the terror network.Carney described al-Libi as an operational leader and a \general manager\ of al-Qaida. He said al-Libi had a range of experience that will be hard for al-Qaida to replicate and brings the terror network closer to its ultimate demise than ever before.Al-Libi was the latest in the dozen-plus senior commanders removed in the clandestine U.S. war against al-Qaida since Navy SEALs killed bin Laden.A hero in militant circles for his 2005 escape from an American military prison in Afghanistan, al-Libi was elevated to al-Qaida's No. 2 spot when Ayman al-Zawahri rose to replace bin Laden shortly after the terror leader was killed on May 2, 2011.Carney would not confirm how he was killed, but an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said it was in a drone strike Monday morning. Pakistani officials had previously said that eight militants died in a drone strike in the Pakistani village of Khassu Khel in the North Waziristan tribal area.Militants and residents in the area told Pakistani agents that al-Libi was in the house when it was hit, Pakistani intelligence officials said. They said the mud and brick house was destroyed in the attack. A vehicle used by al-Libi was destroyed during the strike, said one of the officials.A local Taliban chief said earlier Monday that al-Libi was not present at the house, though his guard and driver were killed in the attack.The intelligence officials also declined to be identified because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The Taliban chief spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by the Pakistani army.The White House maintains a list of terrorist targets to be killed or captured, compiled by the military and the CIA and ultimately approved by the president.The State Department's Rewards for Justice program had set a $1 million reward for information leading to al-Libi, who had filmed numerous propaganda videos urging attacks on U.S. targets.The U.S. has carried out a flurry of drone strikes recently - seven in less than two weeks - some of which appear to have been trying to target al-Libi. The al-Qaida deputy appeared to have been wounded in one of those strikes, although there were conflicting accounts as to which.Pakistani intelligence officials said al-Libi had been slightly injured in a May 28 attack in a village near Khassu Khel, where he then moved. The Taliban chief said the strike that wounded al-Libi was two days earlier in a different village.As al-Qaida's de facto general manager, al-Libi was responsible for running the group's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal areas and managed outreach to al-Qaida's regional affiliates.Al-Libi, an Islamic scholar, was captured in 2002 and held by U.S. forces at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan until he escaped in 2005 in an embarrassing security breach. Almost immediately after reuniting with his Taliban and al-Qaida brethren he began appearing in videos released by the terror group.The Rewards for Justice program described al-Libi as using his \religious training to influence people and legitimize the actions of al-Qaida.\In a 2009 profile of al-Libi in Foreign Policy magazine, terrorism expert Jarret Brachman described al-Libi as \media-savvy