Pakistan seeks confirmation of top al Qaeda death

Security officials in Pakistan were seeking confirmation on Tuesday that a top al Qaeda expert on chemical and biological weapons had been killed in a suspected US missile strike.

The news came as Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani held his first talks with US President George W. Bush, centred on how to tackle militants based in the lawless tribal zones.

Gilani urged the United States not to act “unilaterally” against militants in his country.

There was no immediate confirmation from Washington or the US-led coalition in Afghanistan about Monday’s strike in the South Waziristan tribal district, which a senior Pakistani official said was thought to have killed Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.

The Egyptian militant — who is also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri — had a five-million-dollar bounty on his head and is alleged to have trained hundreds of extremists at camps in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

“We believe he was killed in this strike,” a senior Pakistan intelligence official based in the northwest city of Peshawar told AFP under cover of anonymity.

“It was his hideout, and information that has been shared with us says he was targeted in this strike.”

Officials earlier said three Arab militants and three Pakistani youths were killed when missiles fired from a suspected US drone hit a house attached to a village mosque.

Umar’s wife and children were believed to have been injured in the attack, Pakistani officials said.

Residents said the victims of the strike were hastily buried in the hours after the attack.

Pakistan’s military said it was still seeking confirmation, as claims that Umar was killed in another air strike in the Bajaur tribal region in January 2006 turned out to be untrue.

“We have not yet received any authentic information from the area from our teams,” military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

Pakistani officials said Umar had given explosives training to a generation of militants, including British “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a transatlantic jet in December 2001.

Residents in South Waziristan said they had heard US aircraft and pilotless Predator drones flying above the area before and after the strike.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan and the separate Nato-led force there both denied involvement. The US Central Intelligence Agency is also known to operate drones in the region.