Pakistan seeks confirmation of top Al-Qaeda death
Posted: 29 July 2008 1210 hrs
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A Pakistani journalist browses a internet site collecting information about
Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Security officials in Pakistan were seeking confirmation
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 Islamic
militants based in the lawless tribal zones.
Gilani, whose new government has been facing intense US pressure to crack
down, 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
US$5-million 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.
Umar was a trainer at Al-Qaeda's Derunta camp in Afghanistan in the 1990s,
"where he provided hundreds of mujahedin with hands-on training in the use
of poisons and explosives," the US government Rewards for Justice website
says.
"Since 1999, he has distributed training manuals that contain instructions
for making chemical and biological weapons."
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.
Pakistan has protested over a wave of missile strikes attributed to US-led
forces in Afghanistan in recent months that have killed dozens of people.
An attack in January believed to have been carried out by the United States
killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a senior Al-Qaeda commander.
Gilani insisted after his White House meeting with Bush that Pakistan was
committed to fighting extremists.
Asked on CNN television about the missile strike, Gilani said he had told
Bush that "unilaterally it should not be done."
"We must have more cooperation with each other and it's our job because we
are fighting the war for ourselves," the premier said.
He declined to directly accuse the United States of responsibility for the
missile attack, but said that if it was proven to have been a US operation,
it would be a violation of Pakistani sovereignty.
Pakistan's fledgling government caused concern in Washington by launching
talks with Taliban militants soon after beating allies of US-backed
President Pervez Musharraf in elections in February.
- AFP/yb
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