Senior Libyan al-Qaida leader reported slain in drone strike

A senior al-Qaida leader was reportedly killed in a late-night drone strike that hit his home in Libya's remote south, a Libyan news agency said today.

The strike was suspected to be the work of a Western military but a Pentagon spokesman denied it was carried out by the United States.

The LANA news agency said that Abu Talha al-Hassnawi, a key figure in al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, was killed in his house in Sabha late yesterday.

According to the agency, al-Hassnawi was previously a leading member of al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, and was a leading recruiter of fighters heading to fight in Syria's vicious and complex conflict that has seen rival al-Qaida and Islamic State militants battle each other.
 

Al-Hassnawi was also purportedly close to the a top militant once considered the most dangerous man in the Sahara the one-eyed terror leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former member of al-Qaida's North Africa branch and has been seen in his company in the past.

LANA also said that al-Hassnawi had fled to Sabha from the northern coastal city of Sirte, where Libyan militias and forces loyal to the UN-brokered government in the capital, Tripoli, are battling the Islamic State affiliate with the help of US airstrikes.

Libya is split between two rival governments, the UN-backed one in Tripoli and its rival, based in the country's east. The LANA news agency that reported al-Hassnawi's death is affiliated with the east-based government.