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Leading Qaeda member killed
31/01/2008 22:45 - (SA)
Dubai - A leading al-Qaeda member in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, has been killed, a website often used by the group and other Islamists said on Thursday.
A banner on the Ekhlaas.org site said Libi had fallen as a martyr, without giving further details.
It was not immediately clear if Libi's death was linked to a suspected US missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region this week.
The attack had targeted second or third tier al-Qaeda leaders, according to residents in the tribal area.
Tribesmen in the area had said a deputy of Libi, a senior al-Qaeda leader, had been staying there and was among the dead, according to an intelligence official.
Libi, a Libyan, 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.
Islamists 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.
- Reuters
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