Another Blow To Al-Qaeda

Another blow to f al-Qaeda. The killing of it's second-in-command Atiyah abd al-Rahman in Pakistan last week, has dealt the terror organization a blow so significant, it has left it's core operations virtually paralyzed, intelligence experts said Sunday.

Al-Rahman, a Libyan national, rose to the number two spot when Ayman al-Zawahri took the reins of al-Qaeda after Laden in May in a US raid in Pakistan.

One US official said Rahman was killed in a strike by an unmanned drone on August 22. He was killed in Waziristan in northwest Pakistan where intelligence officials believe members of the organization are hiding, other US officials said.

"Atiyah's death is a tremendous loss for al-Qaeda, because (Zawahri) was relying heavily on him to help guide and run the organization, especially since bin Laden's death," one US official said.

"The trove of materials from bin Laden's compound showed clearly that Atiyah was deeply involved in directing al Qaeda's operations even before the (May) raid. He had multiple responsibilities in the organization and will be very difficult to replace," the official said.

US and Pakistani intelligence ties have been strained since the unilateral American strike against bin Laden, and Pakistani intelligence did not confirm Rahman's death. Sources in Pakistan said four people known to have been killed in a US drone strike on August 22 were local militants and not al-Qaeda.

Although most US officials described Rahman as al-Qaeda's No. 2, one said his rank wasn't as clear, saying he could be considered one of the top three leaders of the organization.

Regardless, Rahman's death would signal another significant setback for al Qaeda's core group just days before the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Noman Benotman, a former Libyan Islamist and now an analyst with Britain's Quilliam think tank, described Rahman as al-Qaeda's "CEO," or chief executive officer.

"This was the one man al Qaeda could not afford to lose," Benotman said.

"In the last two years he successfully, and I think more or less single-handedly, created the dynamics that kept al-Qaeda together."

A US official said Rahman ran daily operations for the group, spoke on behalf of bin Laden and Zawahri and was the one that "affiliates knew and trusted."

"Zawahri needed Atiyah's experience and connections to help manage al Qaeda. Now it will be even harder for him to consolidate control," the U.S. official said.

Zawahri is believed to lack bin Laden's presence or his ability to unite different Arab factions within the group, analysts say.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last month on a visit to Afghanistan that he believed the strategic defeat of al Qaeda was within reach if the United States could kill or capture up to 20 remaining leaders of the core group and its affiliates.