Osama bin Laden’s right hand man’s deputy was killed by a U.S. drone in Pakistan this week. Abu Yahya al-Libi was struck down by a missile fired from a U.S. operated drone. The Libyan-born Libi was a cleric whose real name was changed from Mohamed Hassan Qaid, originally. The missile was targeting a suspected militant hideout in a tribal region of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border.

Libi had appeared in al Qaeda propaganda videos and once escaped from a U.S. operated prison in Afghanistan. “Abu Yahya al-Libi was among al Qaeda’s most experienced and versatile leaders. He was involved as an operational trainer and played a major role in the group’s planning against the West,” one U.S. official said.

“Al Qaeda will be hard-pressed to find any one person who can readily step into Abu Yahya’s shoes,” reported another government official. However it has also been said that when you kill one terrorist, ten more will pop up out of nowhere.

“It is significant,” a US official remarked, saying Libi headed Al-Qaeda operations in Pakistan with outreach to affiliates such as Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has attacked US targets. Other reports say that 15 more people died in the drone strike that brought down Libi.

The Libi killing may worsen the already weak relations between the United States and Pakistan because of previous U.S. drone attacks on Pakistani soil. The killing of bin Laden last year resulted in Pakistan closing supply lines into neighbouring Afghanistan and arresting the man who helped the U.S. bring down bin Laden.

Abu Yahya al-Libi was considered a trusted and capable associate of bin Laden as well as being the chief architect of its world-wide Al-Qaeda propaganda machine. He had served as the group’s “general manager” and was in charge of day-to-day operations in the Pakistani tribal areas.

A U. S. official said the demise of Libi is a “major blow” to Al-Qaeda’s central core and will put additional strain on Ayman al-Zawahiri as their current leader.