Al-Qaida's Third in Command Reportedly Killed Along Pakistan Border

Al-Qaida's number three — a co-founder of the terror network — has been killed in Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan, according to a statement attributed to the group that was posted on Islamist websites Monday.

The statement did not say how Egyptian-born Shaykh Saeed, whose real name is Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was killed nor did it identify a successor.

Saeed was al-Qaida's financial director and ran its operations in Afghanistan. An initial report that he was also Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law was incorrect.

One senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity told NBC News that Saeed was killed in an attack by a missile-carrying drone aircraft. The strike was said to have happened last week.

Another official said that "in terms of counterterrorism this would be a big victory," describing Saeed as "the group's chief operating officer, with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning. He was also the organization's prime conduit to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was key to al-Qaida's command and control."

"In some respects, Shaykh Saeed's death is more important for al-Qaida operations than if Bin Laden or Zawahiri was killed," said Roger Cressey, former deputy chief for counterterrorism at the National Security Council and now an NBC News consultant. "Any al-Qaida operation of any consequence would run through him.  

Evan Kohlmann, who tracks al-Qaida for NBC News, added that Saeed "was one of the original founders of al-Qaida in 1988, and has served on the group's Shura Council since then. His death is a significant loss for al-Qaida."

Al-Yazid, who was 56, had been involved with Islamic extremist movements for nearly 30 years since he joined radical student groups led by fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, now the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden.

In the early 1980s, al-Yazid served three years in an Egyptian prison for purported links to the group responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. After his release, al-Yazid, also known as Abu Saeed al-Masri, turned up in Afghanistan, where, according to al-Qaida's propaganda wing Al-Sabah, he became a founding member of the terrorist group.

He later followed bin Laden to Sudan and back to Afghanistan, where he served as al-Qaida's chief financial officer, managing secret bank accounts in the Persian Gulf that were used to help finance the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

After the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001, al-Yazid went into hiding for years. He surfaced in May 2007 during a 45-minute interview posted on the Web by Al-Sabah, in which he was introduced as the "official in charge" of the terrorist movement's operations in Afghanistan.

MSNBC