Dubai: An al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, one of the group's most senior leaders, has been killed, a website used by the group said on Thursday.
It was not clear whether the death of Abu Laith al-Libi, described as a field commander by Western intelligence officials, was linked to a suspected US missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region this week.
"We congratulate the Islamic nation on the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Laith al-Libi. May God accept him (as a martyr)," the Ekhlaas.org Web site reported, without giving further details. It is a great honour in Islam to die as a "martyr".
Pakistani daily, The News, reported that the suspected US strike had targeted Libi and another senior figure, Obaidah al Masri, although residents in the tribal area had said the attack had targeted second or third tier al Qaeda leaders.
Tribesmen in the area had said a deputy of Libi, a senior al Qaeda leader, had been staying in the area, which borders Afghanistan, and was among the dead, according to an intelligence official.
A Western official said there were indications Libi had died: "At this point there is no reason to doubt that he is dead. There are indications that he is in fact dead," the official said.
"This individual is in the top half-dozen figures in al Qaeda who has a long record of military activity on behalf of al Qaeda," he said.
A Libyan, Libi appeared in a video issued in November, with al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri, to announce that a Libyan Islamist group had joined the militant organisation.
Islamist websites have carried messages from Libi, including one in May in which he said al Qaeda in Afghanistan was willing to exchange prisoners with Britain and other Western countries.
In 2002, acting as an al Qaeda spokesman, Libi was the first from the group to bring news that Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar were alive after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
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