US airstrike kills senior Al-Qaida commander

A top Al Qaeda commander and two of its other leaders have been killed in a US air strike in Afghanistan, media reported.

Carter said on Friday that the airstrike killed Abu Khalil Al-Sudani in Afghanistan’s Paktika province on July 11.

“Al-Sudani was directly linked to external attack plotting against the United States and directed operations against the coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces”, the official said. He was Al Qaeda’s high ranked operational commander.

The Pentagon chief said two other “violent extremists” were killed in the airstrike.

Carter arrived in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Thursday to hold talks with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi over the country’s progress in its fight against ISIL terrorists.

Pentagon in a statement said that al-Sudani’s death will further degrade the operations of militants across the group.

The group’s second-in-command Nasir al Wuhayshi died in June and earlier this week, Muhsin al Fadhli, a key al Qaeda target, was also killed in Syria.

Al-Fahdli was so trusted by Bin Laden’s inner circle that he was among the few who knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks in New York.

But that figure is still significantly lower than previous years.