The Associated Press says a group of Israeli assassins receiving information from the United States have carried out a daring operation which resulted in the assassination of al-Qaeda’s second top leader in Tehran.
The agency has confirmed a claim made last week by The New York Times, according to which an Israeli assassination team killed al-Qaeda’s deputy leader in an operation inside Iran in August.
The Associated Press on Sunday said it was able to verify The Times’ story with “four current and former US [intelligence] officials”, one of whom had “direct knowledge of the operation” and another, a former CIA officer, had been briefed about it.
The operation was carried out by Israel, acting on information given to it by the US, the agency explained.
Abu Muhammad al-Masri, whose real name was Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, was shot dead along his daughter on a street in Tehran about three months ago, The New York Times revealed in a new report citing intelligence officials.
Masri was reportedly the mastermind behind the deadly 1998 attacks on American embassies in Africa.
Tehran denied the incident on Sunday claiming that foreign countries “want to accuse Iran of having ties to these groups (al-Qaeda).”
