Bildet sier noe om kraften i eksplosjonen. Det er ingenting igjen av ambassaden i Nairobi. Bildet er tatt 8. august 1998. Foto: Dave Caulkin/AP/Scanpix

Mossad drepte al-Qaidas no 2. i Teheran for tre måneder siden, på oppdrag fra USA, sier tjenestemenn til New York Times. Hverken al-Qaida eller Teheran har omtalt likvideringen. Abu Muhammad al-Masri var ansvarlig for bombingen av de amerikanske ambassadene i Nairobi og Dar es Salaam i 1998.

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down on the streets of Tehran by two assassins on a motorcycle on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the embassy attacks. He was killed along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza bin Laden.

The attack was carried out by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States, according to four of the officials. It is unclear what role if any was played by the United States, which had been tracking the movements of Mr. al-Masri and other Qaeda operatives in Iran for years.

Al-Masri var etterlyst av FBI som ansvarlig for de grufulle angrepene på de amerikanske ambassadene i Nairobi og Dar es Salaam i 1998, der 224 mennesker ble drept og hundrevis såret. Attentatet ble gjennomført på årsdagen, 7. august. Dermed sendte oppdragsgiverne et klart signal: Forbrytelsene blir aldri glemt eller foreldet.

New York Times undrer seg over at en al Qaida-leder befinner seg i Teheran, siden regimet og sunni-gruppen er bitre fiender. Men det har lenge vært kjent at al-Qaida-ledere flyktet til Iran da Afghanistan falt.

American intelligence officials say that Mr. al-Masri had been in Iran’s “custody” since 2003, but that he had been living freely in the Pasdaran district of Tehran, an upscale suburb, since at least 2015.

Al Qaeda’s No. 2, Accused in U.S. Embassy Attacks, Is Secretly Killed in Iran

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