Saleh al-Somali, born Abdirizaq Abdi Saleh, was described as being an

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

leader and the group's head of external operations. He was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned predator drone on 8 December 2009. The missile strike was on a suspect compound in Janikhel village near

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Federally Administered Tribal Areas The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

, today a part of the

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

. Initially the identity of the senior

al Qaida {{Infobox war faction , name = Al-Qaeda , native_name = {{Script, Arabic, القاعدة , native_name_lang = ar , war = {{Collapsible list , title={{Nbsp , {{Plainlist, * War on Terror * Afghanistan conf ...

leader reported killed was not made public. But on 11 December 2009 ''

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

'' quoted a US security official who said: "There are strong indications that senior

al Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

operations planner Saleh al-Somali has been killed".

References

2009 deaths Al-Qaeda planners Somalian al-Qaeda members Somalian Sunni Muslims Somalian Islamists Deaths by American drone strikes in Pakistan Year of birth missing Somalian expatriates in Pakistan {{Somalia-bio-stub