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Mike Pompeo Confirms Death of Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 in Tehran Last August
Posted
January 12, 2021
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1:28Now PlayingSecretary of State Michael Pompeo publicly confirmed for the first time that Al-Qaeda’s second in command was shot to death on the streets of Tehran last August, as he gave a speech that sought to highlight Iran’s links to the terror group.
Pompeo didn’t say who was responsible for the Aug. 7 assassination of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri, though the New York Times reported in November that Israeli agents carried out the job at the behest of the U.S. He was on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list and had been indicted over U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
The top U.S. diplomat disclosed Abdullah’s death at the start of a speech that was intended to ratchet up even more pressure on Iran as the Trump administration winds down, and to make it harder for the incoming Biden administration to re-enter a nuclear deal with the country’s leaders.
“Al-Qaeda has a new home base: it is the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pompeo said on Tuesday. “We ignore this Iran-Al Qaeda nexus at our own peril.”
Pompeo said he was publicly disclosing other information for the first time to show that the U.S. now believes Iran, which once closely monitored al-Qaeda operatives in the country, is giving them more freedom of movement and allowing it to establish an operational headquarters. He said that’s given the group new time and resources to fundraise and plot new attacks.
“Al-Qaeda now has time, because they’re inside Iran they have money,” Pompeo said. “They now have new tools for terror.”
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