A senior Al-Qaeda commander and two other militants died in a drone strike in Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika province, the US military said on Friday.
Abu Khalil al-Sudani, head of Al-Qaeda's "suicide and explosives operations" was killed in a 11 July strike in Paktika's Bermal district and was linked to plots to attack US targets, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Al-Sudani also directed operations against Coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces, and maintained close contact with Al Qaeda's leader Aymar al-Zawahiri, according to the Pentagon.
"Al-Sudani was one of three known violent extremists killed in the strike. The death of al-Sudani will further degrade Al-Qaeda operations across the globe," the statement said, cited by Afghan news agency Pajhwok.
The strike in Paktika was the latest in a series of US counter-terrorism strikes in Afghanistan in recent weeks, according to the statement released to reporters travelling with defence secretary Ashton Carter in Iraq.
In the statement, Carter said the killing of Sudani showed that the United States would “continue to take the fight to Al-Qaeda.”
“We will continue to counter violent extremism in the region and around the world, including efforts to deliver a lasting defeat to ISIL,” Carter added, referring to the Sunni militant group that holds swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
