Islamabad: Senior Al Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi was killed this week along with other militant fighters in a US missile strike in Pakistan, a website linked to radical Islamic groups has reported.

Reports have suggested that Libi was among seven Arabs and five Central Asians who were killed in a missile strike on a house at Khushali Torikhel village in Pakistan's troubled North Waziristan tribal area early on Tuesday morning. Local residents claimed the missile was fired by an unmanned spy plane operating from Afghanistan.

Militants retrieved and buried the bodies on Wednesday and did not let local residents approach the house. The Pakistan Army has said it has no information on who was killed in the attack. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan today said there had been an explosion in a home where Taliban fighters were staying but their bodies were buried before they could be examined. Therefore, it could not be said with certainty that Libi was among the dead, he told reporters.

But the Al-Fajr Information Centre, a website linked to Al Qaeda, reported Libi's death yesterday. The website said that "Sheikh Abu Laith al-Qassimi al-Libi was martyred with a group of his brothers on the soil of Muslim Pakistan". Libi is believed to be the first major Al Qaeda leader to have been killed or captured in Pakistan in almost two years.

There have been reports of several strikes carried out in Pakistan by pilotless US drones armed with missiles and launched from Afghanistan. But such attacks have never been confirmed by the Pakistani military, which says foreign forces will not be allowed to operate within the country.

Source : PTI