4 US Officials Confirm Assassination of Al-Qaeda Leader in Tehran

Iranians wearing face masks to limit the transmission of Covid-19 wait in a taxi line in a street in Tehran, Iran, November 2020. (EPA)
Iranians wearing face masks to limit the transmission of Covid-19 wait in a taxi line in a street in Tehran, Iran, November 2020. (EPA)
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4 US Officials Confirm Assassination of Al-Qaeda Leader in Tehran

Iranians wearing face masks to limit the transmission of Covid-19 wait in a taxi line in a street in Tehran, Iran, November 2020. (EPA)
Iranians wearing face masks to limit the transmission of Covid-19 wait in a taxi line in a street in Tehran, Iran, November 2020. (EPA)

The United States and Israel cooperated to pursue and kill a senior al-Qaeda operative in Iran earlier this year, a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran.

Four current and former US officials said Abu Mohammed al-Masri, al-Qaeda’s second leader, was killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August.

The US provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find Masri and the alias he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the killing, according to two of the officials.

The two other officials affirmed Masri’s killing but could not provide specific details, according to an Associated Press report on Sunday.

Masri was gunned down in a Tehran alley on Aug. 7, which coincided with the anniversary of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

He was widely believed to have participated in the planning of those attacks and was wanted on terrorism charges by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Masri’s death is a blow to al-Qaeda, the terror network that orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US, and comes amid rumors in the Middle East about the fate of the group’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The four officials could not confirm those reports but said the US intelligence community was trying to determine their credibility.

Two of the officials — one within the intelligence community and with direct knowledge of the operation and another former CIA officer briefed on the matter — said Masri was killed by Kidon, a unit within the secretive Israeli spy organization Mossad allegedly responsible for the assassination of high-value targets. In Hebrew, Kidon means bayonet or “tip of the spear.”

The official in the intelligence community said Masri’s daughter, Maryam, was also a target of the operation.

The US believed she was being groomed for a leadership role in al-Qaeda and intelligence suggested she was involved in operational planning, according to the official, who like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

Masri’s daughter was the widow of Hamza bin Laden, the son of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden. He was killed last year in a US counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

The news of Masri’s death was first reported by The New York Times. Both the CIA and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which oversees the Mossad intelligence agency, declined to comment.

Israel and Iran are bitter enemies, with the Iranian nuclear program Israel’s top security concern. Israel has welcomed the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord and the US pressure campaign on Tehran.

At the time of the killings, the Trump administration was in the advanced stages of trying to push through the UN Security Council the reinstatement of all international sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the nuclear agreement.

None of the other Security Council members went along with the US, which has vowed to punish countries that do not enforce the sanctions as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.

Israeli officials are concerned the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden could return to the nuclear accord.

It is likely that if Biden does engage with the Iranians, Israel will press for the accord to be modified to address Iran’s long-range missile program and its military activity across the region, specifically in Syria and its support for groups like Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian factions Hamas and the “Islamic Jihad”.

The revelations that Iran was harboring an al-Qaeda leader could help Israel bolster its case with the new US administration.

Masri had been on a kill or capture list for years, but his presence in Iran, which has a long history of hostility toward al-Qaeda, presented significant obstacles to either apprehending or killing him.

Iran, for its part, has denied the reports, saying the government is not harboring any al-Qaeda leaders and blaming the US and Israel for trying to foment anti-Iranian sentiment.

US officials have long believed a number of al-Qaeda leaders have been living quietly in Iran for years and publicly released intelligence assessments have made that case.

Masri’s death, albeit under an assumed name, was reported in Iranian media on Aug. 8. Reports identified him as a Lebanese history professor potentially affiliated with Lebanon’s Iranian-linked Hezbollah movement and said he had been killed by motorcycle gunmen along with his daughter.

Lebanese media, citing Iranian reports, said that those killed were Lebanese citizen Habib Daoud and his daughter Maraym.

Their death occurred three days after the catastrophic Aug. 4 Beirut port blast and did not get much attention. Hezbollah never commented on reports and Lebanese security officials did not report that any citizens were killed in Tehran.

A Hezbollah official on Saturday refused to comment on Masri’s death, saying Iran’s foreign ministry had already denied the news.

Meanwhile, the alleged killings seem to fit a pattern of behavior attributed to Israel in the past.

In 1995, the founder the “Islamic Jihad” was killed by a gunman on a motorcycle in Malta, in an assassination widely attributed to the Mossad, which also reportedly carried out a string of similar killings of Iranian nuclear scientists in Iran early last decade. Iran has accused Israel of being behind those killings.

Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former analyst on Iranian affairs in the prime minister’s office, said it has been known for some time that Iran is hiding top al-Qaeda figures.

While he had no direct knowledge of Masri’s death, he said a joint operation between the US and Israel would reflect the two nations’ close intelligence cooperation, with the US typically stronger in the technical aspects of intelligence gathering and Israel adept at operating agents behind enemy lines.



Ultra-Orthodox Party Quits Israeli Cabinet but Throws Netanyahu a Lifeline

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ultra-Orthodox Party Quits Israeli Cabinet but Throws Netanyahu a Lifeline

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Reuters)

An ultra-Orthodox party quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet on Wednesday, but said it would remain within his coalition for now, giving the government more time to resolve a thorny dispute over military conscription.

Another ultra-Orthodox group abandoned the coalition on Tuesday over the deeply divisive issue, leaving Netanyahu with just a one-seat majority in parliament.

But rather than follow suit, the other ultra-Orthodox partner, Shas, said on Wednesday it would just pull its ministers from government ranks while continuing to back the coalition in parliament.

"Shas representatives ... find with a heavy heart that they cannot stay in the government and be a part of it," the group said in a statement, a day after the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party had announced its full walkout.

The Shas decision means Netanyahu does not face the threat of early elections, for now, nor does it undermine his efforts to secure a possible Gaza ceasefire.

Israel's parliament starts a three-month summer recess on July 27, giving Netanyahu time to try to resolve the problem of who should serve in the military -- a debate that has long caused huge tensions within Israel's deeply divided society.

There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu or other partners within his increasingly splintered cabinet.

While the ultra-Orthodox parties have focused their anger on the conscription issue, far-right parties have been pressing Netanyahu not to make concessions in ceasefire talks with Hamas that are underway in Qatar.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich want Israel to press on with the war, but Netanyahu would still be likely to have enough cabinet votes to back any eventual ceasefire without them.

WAR WEARY

Underscoring divisions in the coalition, Shas in its statement on Wednesday urged Netanyahu to do "everything in his power" to reach a deal with Hamas.

Israelis have become increasingly weary of the 21-month war in Gaza, which began with Israel's single deadliest day on October 7, 2023, when a surprise attack by Hamas killed 1,200 and saw 251 taken hostage by the Palestinian group.

Israel's subsequent offensive against Hamas has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, displaced almost the entire population of Gaza, led to a humanitarian crisis and left much of the enclave in ruins.

It has also exacted Israel's highest military death toll in decades, with around 450 soldiers killed so far in Gaza combat.

This has added fuel to an already explosive debate over a new conscription bill that lies at the center of the latest crisis to rattle Netanyahu's coalition, which took office in late 2022 and is due to stay in office until the autumn of 2026.

Ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long been exempt from mandatory military service. Many Israelis are angered by what they see as an unfair burden carried by the mainstream who serve.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders say full-time devotion to the study of holy scriptures is sacrosanct and fear their young men will steer away from religious life if they are drafted into the military.

Last year the Supreme Court ordered an end to the exemption. Parliament has been trying to work out a new conscription bill, which has so far failed to meet UTJ demands.