Senior Al Qaeda leader killed in drone attack

Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan was considered the second-in-command to Ayman Al Zawahiri, the new leader of Al Qaeda.

Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan sat down to breakfeast, his last on Earth according to NBC News. U.S. officials and Jihadist's forums report that Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan also known as, Abu Ziad al-Kuwaiti was killed in Pakistan. "We celebrate to you the news of the martyrdom of the working scholar Shaykh Khalid al-Hussainan (Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti) while eating his Suhoor (dawn time) meal, and we ask Allah to accept him in paradise," a post said on an Al Qaeda affiliated web forum. NBC News Terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann, is quoted in the NBC News report as saying that Al-Kuwaiti was in the top tier of Al Qaeda, following the death of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, also killed in Pakistan. "That's a big gap in the leadership,” said Kohlmann. “He was the last senior Al-Qaida leader in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area who was, one, from the Arabian Peninsula and, two, who had serious clerical credentials. Now there is no obvious publicly recognizable candidate left to succeed Zawahiri.” In an interview earlier this year, Al Kuwaiti stated he began his religious studies in 1986 in Saudi Arabia. According to Al-Kuwaiti he began to fight Jihad in 2006, he was also the author of many religious pamphlets, and featured in Al Qaeda religious tapes. Concerning the September 11th attacks Al-Kuwaiti stated: "To those who call the Mujahideen terrorists or extremists I will say, fear Allah when it comes to your own final reckoning." Due to the drone attack, Abu Ziad Al-Kuwaiti has just met his final reckoning.