CAIRO: A U.S. airstrike has killed Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, who commanded its powerful Yemeni affiliate, dealing the global network its biggest blow since the killing of Osama bin Laden and eliminating a charismatic leader at a time when it is vying with ISIS for the mantle of global jihad.

Nasir al-Wahishi is the latest in a series of senior figures from Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch eliminated by U.S. drone strikes in the past five months, including its top ideologue and a senior military commander.

Wahishi was a former aide to bin Laden who, after the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Saudi Arabia was crushed in the mid-2000s, rebuilt it in his homeland Yemen and turned it into the network’s most dangerous branch. He also served as deputy to Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded bin Laden in 2011 as the group’s leader. The U.S. put a bounty of up to $10 million on Wahishi.

The Yemeni branch, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed responsibility for January’s attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people. It also attempted several attacks on the U.S. including the botched 2009 plot to bomb an American passenger jet.

Wahishi’s death came in a U.S. drone strike a week ago in the port city of Mukalla, which Al-Qaeda captured in April.