(CNN) -- Abu Yahya al-Libi, the No. 2 man in al
Qaeda and a longtime public face of the terror network, is dead, White
House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed Tuesday.
Al-Libi's death was "another serious blow to core al Qaeda," said Carney, who was unable to provide further details.
"His death is part of the degradation taking place in core al Qaeda in the last several years," Carney said.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. officials said that al-Libi was killed by a CIA drone strike in Pakistan launched Monday.
Al-Libi's death marks one
of the most significant blows to al Qaeda since the U.S. military
killed Osama bin Laden in a daring nighttime raid in Pakistan a year
ago.
Al-Libi was second-in-command behind al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took the helm after bin Laden's death.
"There is no one who even
comes close in terms of replacing the expertise (al Qaeda) has just
lost," said the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Al-Libi "played a
critical role in the group's planning against the West, providing
oversight of the external operations efforts," the official said.
"Zawahiri will be
hard-pressed to find any one person who can readily step into Abu
Yahya's shoes," the official said. "In addition to his gravitas as a
longstanding member of AQ's leadership, Abu Yahya's religious
credentials gave him the authority to issue fatwas, operational
approvals and guidance to the core group in Pakistan and regional
affiliates."
The Monday strike was the third such deadly attack in as many days and
the 21st suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan this year. At least six
missiles were fired at a militant compound near the town of Mir Ali in
the North Waziristan region near the Afghanistan border.
Reports emerged a couple of years ago that al-Libi was slain, but they proved to be incorrect.
Al Qaeda's leadership
has been so thinned by the U.S. drone campaign in Pakistan that these
men were the only two real leaders of the organization left, U.S.
counterterrorism officials said, according to CNN Security Analyst Peter
Bergen. Al Qaeda offshoots in other parts of the world, such as the
group's affiliate in Yemen, have meanwhile become more potent and
worrisome to the United States.
An Islamic scholar and
high-ranking member of the group, al-Libi frequently appeared in
Internet videos. He gave many videotaped speeches praising al Qaeda
leaders, urging resistance and trying to recruit new members.
"Al-Libi is a key
motivator in the global jihadi movement and his messages convey a clear
threat to U.S. persons or property worldwide," said a "Wanted" statement
posted on the website of the U.S. State Department's "Rewards for
Justice" program, which offers rewards for information about suspected
terrorists.
"Al-Libi is believed to
be in hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan," said the website, which
offered a reward of up to $1 million for the 49-year-old Libyan.
Al-Libi purportedly was among al Qaeda leaders working in Libya since last year to establish a presence there.
In a video message to
fellow Libyans distributed on jihadist forums in December, al-Libi said,
"At this crossroads you have found yourselves: You either choose a
secular regime that pleases the greedy crocodiles of the West and for
them to use it as a means to fulfill their goals, or you take a strong
position and establish the religion of Allah."
Al-Libi was captured in
2002 and imprisoned at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, according to the
U.S. government, but he escaped in 2005.
In 2008, a statement
posted on radical Islamic websites known to carry messages from al Qaeda
described how four "military leaders" including al-Libi escaped from
the prison, but the statement said then that one of the escapees, Abu
Abdallah al-Shami, had been killed in a U.S. airstrike.
The statement said that
among those escaping with al-Shami was key al Qaeda figure Omar
al-Faruq, who died in a British airstrike after the escape.
Another escapee, Abu
Nasir al-Qahtani, was captured in Afghanistan in 2006. Al-Shami's death
left al-Libi as the only remaining member of that escape who had not
been killed or captured.
President Barack Obama's
administration recently justified its use of unmanned drones to target
suspected terrorists overseas in a rare public statement, with John
Brennan, the president's top counterterrorism adviser, saying the
strikes are conducted "in full accordance with the law."
The program uses
unmanned aerial vehicles, often equipped with Hellfire missiles, to
target suspected terrorists in remote locations overseas, with many such
strikes occurring in Yemen and Pakistan, despite some internal
opposition within the latter country.
Brennan said the United
States "respects national sovereignty and international law" and is
guided by the laws of war in ordering those attacks.
The Pakistani border
area is widely believed to be the operating base for the Haqqani network
and other militant groups that have attacked international troops in
neighboring Afghanistan.
CNN's Pam Benson, Barbara Starr, Reza Sayah and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.
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