Airstrikes targeting senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan last month killed at least one of their intended targets, the Pentagon confirmed Friday.
The US conducted separate airstrikes against Faruq al-Qatani and Bilal al-Utabi in Kunar province in north-eastern Afghanistan on October 23.
"We can now confirm that the precision strike conducted by the US military on October 23 in Kunar, Afghanistan, resulted in the death of senior al-Qaeda leader Faruq al-Qatani," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.
The fate of al-Utabi was still unclear, Cook added, however Kunar provincial council member Wilayat Khan said last month that he too was dead.
Al-Qatani was a senior al-Qaeda leader in eastern Afghanistan and one of the extremist group's senior plotters of attacks against the US, Cook said.
Large military offensives in Pakistan against the local Taliban have pushed hundreds of fighters across the border into Afghanistan where they seek safety in areas controlled by the Afghan Taliban.
Both of the men were involved in efforts to re-establish a safe haven for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the US said last month.
Should both leaders be dead "their demise would represent a significant blow to the terrorist group's presence in Afghanistan," Cook said earlier.
