Yemen says deputy regional head of al Qaeda killed

Dubai – Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has confirmed that the terrorist group’s second-in-command was killed earlier this year.

In a video recording posted on the Internet, Zawahiri eulogizes Abu Yahya al-Libi and says a U.S. drone strike in June killed the al-Qaida deputy in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal agency.

U.S. officials had confirmed Libi’s death, calling it a major blow against al-Qaida.

The Libyan-born Libi was said to be running the terror group’s day-to-day operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas as well as managing regional affiliates when he was killed earlier this year.

Libi escaped U.S. custody in Afghanistan in 2005 and appeared in a series of propaganda videos before rising to become the terror group’s deputy leader last year.

U.S. special forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden during a covert raid on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May of 2011.

In Zawahiri’s video posted Tuesday, the al-Qaida leader does not directly mention the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States. But he does reference the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the United States has been defeated.