ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) – A recent drone strike in Pakistan’s mountainous tribal region killed a top al-Qaeda commander, two Pakistani security officials said, CNN reported on Tuesday.

Sheikh Mohammed Fateh al Masri, the group’s senior operational commander, was killed after a drone strike hit North Waziristan, one of the seven districts in the country’s terror-ridden tribal region. One source said that al Masri was killed recently, but didn’t specify what that meant, and one other source said that he was killed in a strike on Sunday. The sources didn’t release their names as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The U.S. is the only authorized country in Pakistan and Afghanistan to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled from a remote location. However, U.S. officials do not typically comment on suspected drone strikes. There have been reports of a growing number of drone strikes called by the U.S.’s civilian intelligence arm, the CIA.

Al Masari was emir, a high title of nobility or office in the Muslim world, of Qaidat al-Jihad fi Khorasan, the base of the jihad in the Khorasan, which is the region that encompasses large areas of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Several U.S. military and intelligence officials have said that the report of al Masri’s promotion to lead al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was an accurate one, which makes this death an important one. Al Masri was an Egyptian, and has served as al-Qaeda’s chief financier and paymaster in the past. According to the Asia Times, however, al Masri wasn’t a formal member of al Qaeda.

Pakistan has been targeted by drones over 65 times this year alone, according to CNN. September has seen more attacks than any other month since unmanned aerial strikes began, indicating a stepped up aggression toward terror groups in the region.

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