( CNN ) Ahmed Farouq did n't have the prestige of fellow al Qaeda figure Osama bin Laden , the influence of Anwar al-Awlaki , or the notoriety of Adam Gadahn . Still , he was a big deal . That 's the assessment of multiple sources on a man who may not have been well-known in the West , but nonetheless had a special role in the terrorist group . Farouq -- an American -- died in a U.S. counterterrorism airstrike in January , according to the White House . Two al Qaeda hostages , Warren Weinstein of the United States and Giovanni Lo Porto from Italy , were killed in the same strike , while Gadahn died in another U.S. operation that month . Before that , Farouq was the deputy emir of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent , or AQIS , a branch of the Islamist extremist group that formed in recent years . The branch made its presence known in September 2014 , when militants infiltrated Pakistan 's navy and tried to hijack one of its ships , according to the SITE Institute , which monitors terror groups . The group 's spokesman , Usama Mahmoud , on Twitter compared the Pakistani naval officers involved in the attempted hijacking to Nidal Hasan , SITE reported . Hasan is the U.S. Army psychiatrist sentenced to death for killing 13 people at Fort Hood , Texas . Osama Mehmood , a spokesman for al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent , said that Farouq and another top figure , Qari Abdullah Mansur , were killed in a January 15 drone strike in Pakistan 's Shawal Valley . They were senior al Qaeda leaders , according to Mehmood . American mouthpiece for al Qaeda killed . CNN 's Sophia Saifi contributed to this report .
Ahmed Farouq was a leader in al Qaeda 's India branch . He is believed to have been killed by Indian security forces on the orders of Pakistani intelligence officials, who were trying to prevent him from being recruited into an Islamic terrorist group.