Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Leading al Qaeda figure killed, says US

Updated at 2:41 pm on 18 March 2010

United States officials believe a key al Qaeda figure wanted for a deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan has been killed in a US drone strike.

Hussein al-Yemeni, a top al Qaeda planner, died in the strike in the city of Miranshah in Pakistan, the officials said.

The BBC reports he was believed to have helped plan an attack on a base in Khost in December in which a suicide bomber killed seven CIA agents and a Jordanian officer.

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