‘Tip of the Spear’: Secretive Israeli Unit Killed Al-Qaeda Leader Hiding in Iran

Israeli agents killed one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, who had a $10 million reward on his head.

By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel

Israel rarely reveals its involvement in international missions to fight terrorism, and a recent hit on a top Al-Qaeda terrorist in the heart of Iran was no exception.

Indeed, there was no official comment from Jerusalem regarding weekend reports that a Mossad hit squad working with the United States had assassinated Al Qaeda’s current second-in-command, who was hiding in Iran.

On Friday, The New York Times revealed that a two people who were shot and killed in Tehran in August weren’t  Lebanese nationals, but were none other than a top Al Qaeda terrorist with a $10 million reward on his head, and his daughter, who was the widow of Al Qaeda founder Osama Biden Laden’s son. The woman was also active in the terror organization.

Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah (Abu Muhammad al-Masri) was on the FBI’s most-wanted list for planning the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, attacks that left more than 200 people dead.

Counter-terrorism expert Assaf Moghadam documented Iran’s decades-long cooperation with Al Qaeda and Abdullah’s years in Iran, which he spent at a “training ground for militant groups associated with the Iranian regime.”

To get to Abdullah, the U.S. worked with Israel in order to take down the man described as the #2 top terrorist in Al Qaeda.

And the Israelis had their own incentive for getting Abdullah, who “also began planning terrorist attacks against Israelis and Jewish targets around the world,” Israeli security sources told Channel 12. “Thus the interests were united in one matter, both by the United States and by Israel.”

In what the Associated Press reported as “a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran,” U.S. security officials confirmed that America provided the Israelis with intel on where to find Abdullah, including where he was hiding in the Iranian capital.

The report said the assassination was carried out by a special unit inside Israel’s Mossad spy organization called “Kidon,” the Hebrew word that means “tip of the spear.”

Abdullah, aka Al-Masri, was shot on August 7, the 22nd anniversary of the embassy bombings in a move widely scene as a sharp message to both Al Qaeda and Iran, that the U.S. would not rest until those responsible for the murder of Americans were taken down.