Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Atiyah Abd al-Rahman has been killed in a US drone attack in the mountains of Pakistan's Waziristan area. A senior US Administration official has confirmed the news. Intelligence officials have said Rahman, had taken over as al-Qaeda's top operational planner last year. He was in frequent contact with Osama bin Laden in the months before he was killed on 2nd May by a Navy Seals team. The official said Rahman's death is a tremendous loss for al-Qaeda because Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was relying heavily on him to help guide and run the organisation, especially since bin Laden's death.