Qaeda weapons expert reported killed in Pakistan

US missile strike suspected as cause

DUBAI (Agencies)

A top al-Qaeda expert on chemical and biological weapons is believed to have been killed Monday in a suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, security officials said.

The 55-year-old Egyptian militant Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a $5 million bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

There have been reports of him being killed before.

Officials earlier said that three Arab militants and three Pakistani boys were killed when missiles fired by a suspected U.S. drone hit a house attached to a mosque in the South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

Seeking confirmation

"We believe he was killed in this strike," a senior intelligence official based in the northwestern city of Peshawar told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"It was his hide-out and information that has been shared with us says he was targeted in this strike."

There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan or from Washington.

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

"We are facing difficulties in getting to know what kind of incident it was," Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. "We have not yet received any authentic information from the area from our teams."

Al-Qaeda expert

Umar is described by the website of the U.S. Government Rewards for Justice program, which offered the reward, as an "explosives expert and poisons trainer working on behalf of al-Qaeda".

He served as a trainer at al-Qaeda's Derunta camp in Afghanistan when it was set up in the late 1990s "where he provided hundreds of mujahedin with hands-on training in the use of poisons and explosives," the website said.

"Since 1999, he has distributed training manuals that contain instructions for making chemical and biological weapons. Some of these training manuals were recovered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan," it said.

It said that his exact whereabouts were unknown but that he may be living in Pakistan. He was still likely to be training extremists, the website said.

Drone attacks

Residents in South Waziristan said they heard U.S. aircraft and pilotless Predator drones flying above the area before and after the strike, adding that there had been alarm over similar flights throughout the weekend.

A group of Arabs, believed to be Egyptians, had rented a compound containing the house and a madrassa from a local tribesman, Malik Salat, residents said.

"This (the attack) has been done by coalition forces, we did not do it," another Pakistani security official said on condition of anonymity.

Several drone missile attacks have been carried out this year by U.S. forces against militants linked to al-Qaeda and Taliban hiding in the northwest tribal lands near the Afghan border.

One official told Reuters the religious school struck on Monday was a militant base and the owner of the targeted house, a tribesman named Malik Sallat Khan, had ties with the militants.

"The owner of the house and seminary had some links with militants, and the madrasa was not used for education, but as a compound," he said.

Another official, who also declined to be identified, said at least three missiles hit the house and seminary, killing six people, including foreigners, and wounded three others.

Residents said they heard the sound of a drone aircraft engine, suggesting that the missile may have been fired by a U.S.-controlled unmanned Predator.

"We had heard the sound of a drone engine just before the explosions," said Zia-ur-Rehman, a local tribesmen.

"These drones have been flying since late Sunday night."

Spokesmen for NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan denied involvement in any cross-border strike, but could not speak for the CIA, which also operates drones in the region.

Bilateral issues

Pakistan has protested over a wave of missile strikes attributed to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan in recent months that have killed dozens of local people.

A missile strike in January believed to have been carried out by the U.S. killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a senior al-Qaeda commander.

The latest killings took place hours before scheduled talks between U.S. President George W. Bush and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the White House that were expected to focus on Islamabad's commitment to the "war on terror."

Bush said ahead of the talks that he was "troubled" by the movement of extremists from Pakistan to Afghanistan and would discuss the threat with Gilani, who is making his first White House visit since taking office in March.

But in separate news on Monday, Bush offered $115 million over two years in food aid to Pakistan, the White House said on Monday.

Some see Gilani's fledgling government as powerless to act against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The government launched talks with Taliban militants in the region shortly after defeating political allies of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf in elections in February.