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Al-Qaeda confirms death of weapons expert online

Al-Qaeda has confirmed that a top expert on chemical and biological weapons has died, an Islamist militant Web site said in a statement yesterday.

Abu Khabab al-Masri was among a group of “heroes” who have joined “the caravans of martyrs,” said the statement signed by Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, al-Qaeda’s general commander in Afghanistan.

Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed.

Pakistani officials had said that a missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal area on Tuesday killed Abu Khabab al-Masri, an Egyptian militant whose full name is Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.

Residents said the strike was carried out by a pilotless US drone.

Pakistan’s Taliban movement on Saturday denied a US television report that al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may have been wounded or killed in the same attack.

Al-Qaeda’s statement did not say how Abu Khabab al-Masri died, but it said he had sought “martyrdom” and repeatedly urged his command to assign him to carry out a “martyrdom-seeking operation.”

Meanwhile, a bus carrying a wedding party struck a mine in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province, killing the bride and groom and eight others, a police official said.

Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief, said children were also among the bus victims, which included eight wounded. He blamed Taliban militants for planting the road bomb.

Khan said the bride and groom were among the dead, but relatives said the groom was among the wounded.

The civilian deaths on Saturday came after the US-led coalition said some of its forces used air strikes to kill more than a dozen Taliban fighters, also in the south.

Coalition troops were in a joint patrol with Afghan forces when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in Uruzgan on Friday, the coalition said in a statement.

The joint force retaliated against the attackers and also called in the air strikes, it said. There were no casualties among Afghan or coalition troops.
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