#13 Abu Nabil, a.k.a. Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi
Nabil led ISIS in Libya and was a longtime al-Qaeda figure. He was killed during a November 2015 F-15 strike targeting his compound in eastern Libya. There has been no Libyan government in effect since the toppling of Moammar Kadafi in 2011.
The Pentagon suggested Nabil may have played a key role in an execution video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christian Egyptians along the southern Mediterranean coast in early 2015.
#12 Jihadi John’Mohammed Emwazi
We all saw this guy in the ISIS beheading videos. The 27-year-old British citizen was given the moniker “Jihadi John” after he appeared in videos announcing the killing of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as the slaying of American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
Emwazi was described as a quiet and hardworking schoolboy in affluent northwest London. He was a graduate of the University of Westminster’s computer science program, and his presence brought the issue of homegrown extremism to the forefront.
“He was one of the worst, who hit and tortured without any restraint,” Didier Francois, a journalist held for ten months in Syria, told a French radio station.
#11 Muhsin Fadhli
Fadhli, who fought for the Taliban as a teenager in Afghanistan, had advanced notice of the Sept. 11 attacks. Years later, U.S. intelligence analysts had fears that his faction was progressing in its ability to attack airliners and other Western targets.
The head of a shadowy cell of veteran al-Qaeda operatives known as the Khorasan Group, he was killed while traveling in his vehicle near the Turkish border in the Syrian town of Sarmada. He was identified as the authority of al-Qaeda’s operations in Iran before relocating to Syria.
#10 Mokhtar Belmokhtar
The al-Qaeda linked North African was the architect of a 2013 plot to seize a natural gas refinery in Amenas, Algeria, which resulted in the deaths of more than 38 foreign captives from 10 countries, including three Americans.
Belmokhtar had an extensive history of organizing terrorism, yet always slipped out of the clutches of the U.S. military and its allies. In fact, the French government had nicknamed the Algerian militant “the Uncatchable.” He was one of the most senior al-Qaeda operatives in the North African region. He was buried in Libya’s Ubari area on November 25, security sources from the region have told The New Arab. Mokhtar Belmokhtar died after sustaining serious wounds in a French airstrike on November 15, in the Libyan city of Sabha. Guess the “uncatchable” moniker wasn’t quite true.
#9 Adam Gadahn
The Orange County native, who served as a top propagandist for al-Qaeda, was killed in a CIA drone strike in Waziristan, Pakistan.
The grandson of a Jewish doctor, Gadahn converted to Islam in 1995. He frequented the Islamic Center of Orange County. Those close to Gadahn say he fell under the influence of Hisham Diab, an accountant who lived in the Little Gaza section of Anaheim, who espoused extremist views
Gadahn appeared in five incendiary al-Qaeda videos before his death and became the first American since the World War II era to be charged with treason.
#8 Hakimullah Mehsud
The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, was killed by a CIA drone strike in Waziristan, Pakistan. He was known for attacking a CIA base in Afghanistan, which led to the largest number of agency casualties in a single instance, and a was responsible for a campaign that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security force members.
Mehsud was considered a top militant, and the FBI held a $5 million bounty on his head in the months before he was killed. Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the drone strikes, calling them an attempt to sabotage peace talks between the Pakistani government and the Taliban, to which we say – shut up Pakistan.
#7 Abd al-Muhsin al-Libi
al-Qaeda’s former second-in-command, Libi was killed in a U.S. drone missile strike on Hesokhel, a small village in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. North Waziristan has long been a stronghold for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Haqqani network and other militant groups.
Libi’s death was a big win for U.S. counterterrorism operations in Pakistan, which had their milestone with the killing of Osama bin Laden in early 2011.
#6 Anwar Awlaki
The American-born Muslim cleric, accused of inspiring and plotting terrorist attacks on Americans, including the deadly shooting at an army base in Texas, was killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a drone aircraft operated by the CIA.
Although Awlaki was a midlevel figure in al-Qaeda, he cast a potent shadow in U.S. counterterrorism circles because he spoke fluent English and was effective at reaching disaffected Muslims in the United States and elsewhere via speeches and sermons on the Internet.
His death marked an escalation of Obama administration efforts to kill leaders of al-Qaeda and its affiliates and demonstrated that whether American-born or not, if you join the likes of al-Qaeda or ISIS – we will kill you.
