Islamabad: The bodies from a missile strike that killed several militants have been buried and it was impossible to confirm or refute if a top Al-Qaeda operative was among them, the army said today.

An Islamist website reported yesterday that Al-Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in Pakistan, and a Western official said there were "very strong indications" that he had been slain.

The report came after a suspected US missile raid in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan on Monday night which security officials said had killed seven Arab militants and six Central Asians.

"Our position is that who fired, who ordered, who removed the bodies etc is not known to us," chief Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

"We cannot negate nor confirm because the moment it happened, they removed the bodies and buried them. So, how would anybody confirm who got killed?" Abbas added, without elaborating on who buried the bodies.

A Pakistani interior spokesman said yesterday that he had "no information" on the reported death of the Libyan militant, said to be a key link between Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

An announcement on the Al-Fajr Information Centre website yesterday said that "we announce the good news to the Islamic world, Sheikh Abu Laith al-Qassimi al-Libi has fallen a martyr on the soil of Muslim Pakistan."

Residents and intelligence officials in remote North Waziristan have said that a pilotless drone of a type operated by US forces in Afghanistan was flying over the area before the missile strike.

Source : PTI