Its being reporting that al-Qaeda’s number four has been killed. Khalid Habib has been targeted by U.S. strikes for years and periodically has been reported to have been hit. However, locals who have reported his demise have retracted their statements and Habib has continued to elude the air strikes.

This time it appears that we got him.

The senior member of al-Qaeda was hit in a U.S. air strike from a remotely controlled aircraft on Taparghai, in South Waziristan on Thursday, October 16th.

Habib has moved around the remote regions of Pakistan as the areas he has been in have come under increased bombing. He had just recently moved from Wana (the capital of South Waziristan) to Taparghai because of the increased attacks by the U.S. There is a Pakistani Taliban base nearby that is closely allied with al-Qaeda.

The reports of his demise are coming from villagers who knew him under the alias of Zalfay, which means ‘long hair’ in Pashto. They reported he was ‘important’ in the al-Qaeda network.

The U.S. air strikes in the area have increased significantly in the last couple of months with the goal of breaking the militant network of Sirajuddin Haqqani who is a Taliban leader with close ties to al-Qaeda.

American and Pakistani officials have not verified that Khalid Habib was killed this time, but there is a high possibility he has been. The reports are coming from people living in tribal areas. Hopefully, we will be able to verify that this terrorists has been killed this time.

Habib was an Egyptian and was the chief of al-Qaeda’s operations in the tribal regions of Pakistan.