Analysts: Yazid's death a blow to al-Qaida

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 2 (UPI) -- The death of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid may be a blow to al-Qaida but some analysts say they think the terror group will soon fill its No. 3 vacancy.

On at least 10 previous occasions al-Qaida has lost such a senior operative, but on all those occasions it was able to find a successor quickly, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The newspaper, noting the No. 3 spot is a high-risk job as it involves operations such as overseeing plots, recruiting and raising money, said al-Qaida has become used to filling that position when needed.

"They know they're going to be hit and they've planned somehow for it," Barbara Sude, a former al-Qaida analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and now with the Rand Corp., told the Post. "We just don't know what the bench is, or how deep."

The 54-year-old Yazid, an Egyptian, apparently died May 21 in a missile strike in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal areas. His death was also announced by al-Qaida on the Internet.

Among those who have held the No. 3 spot before Yazid is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, now held Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the report said.

"We welcome his demise," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday about Yazid's death. Yazid was reportedly described by White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan as "the biggest target to be either killed or captured in five years."

"Whenever the top people in the administration get together and look at the terrorism phenomenon, they come to the same conclusion, which is we are not going to shoot our way out of this," a senior counter-terrorism official told the Post.