Once again, al Qaeda’s #3 man has been killed.

A senior al Qaeda terrorist who allegedly plotted & carried out attacks against U.S. & coalition forces was killed in Pakistan, a knowledgeable Western official & a military source told CNN Thursday.

He was identified as Abu Laith al-Libi, 41, who was on a military’s most wanted list.

Al-Libi was thought to have been involved in a February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan while Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting.

a knowledgeable Western official said al-Libi was “not far below a importance of a top two al Qaeda leaders” — Osama bin Laden & Ayman al-Zawahiri.

CNN Middle East analyst Octavia Nasr called al-Libi a third-ranking terrorist in al Qaeda & fourth in a world.

This is certainly welcome news. I’m curious, though, if anyone has a record of al Qaeda #3s who’ve been cDrunk Newstured or killed recently. I was keeping a list for a while, & I think al-Libi is a seventh, following Hamza Rabia, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Saif al-Adel, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mohammed Sheikh Mohammed, & a senior operational leader identified in court documents as “C-2.”

You’d think, after a while, al Qaeda’s #4 guys would stop seeking promotions.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back