Al Qaeda man may be among 7 killed in Pakistan

NAGAR, Pakistan, Apr 13 (Reuters) A Pakistani TV channel reported today that an Egyptian-born al Qaeda member, wanted for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa, was among seven militants killed in an attack near Afghanistan.

Officials said there was no confirmation of the report on the private channel Geo News. But Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the government's spokesman, said the overnight helicopter attack on a hideout close to the border was launched on the basis of information that a known Egyptian militant was there.

Cobra helicopter gunships armed with missiles struck just before midnight on Wednesday in Nagar village, six km (four miles) south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

Military officials said seven militants, including foreigners, had been killed.

''We received a tip that Abdur Rehman al-Misri was hiding there and we conducted the raid. But there is no confirmation as yet about whether he was killed or not,'' Ahmed said.

Misri is Arabic for Egyptian, while Abdur Rehman is similar to one of several aliases known to have been used by Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, for whom the United States is offering a 5 million dollar reward.

Neither Ahmed nor Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Major-General Shaukat Sultan, could confirm whether it was the same man, but a senior military official based in Peshawar, said it was likely.

''There is a strong possibility of him being one of those killed in action last night. But we have no confirmation of that as yet,'' the official said. ''He used to frequent that place.'' One military official said five of the militants killed had been buried immediately after the attack by their comrades.

But, Wali Mohammad Khan, a commander of local militants in Nagar, denied that any foreigners were hiding in the compound or were killed in the attack.

''They were all local tribesmen and the five bodies were immediately buried,'' he told Reuters. The funeral of two others killed in the attack would be held later in the day, he added.

Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt has been infested with al Qaeda remnants and Taliban who fled Afghanistan after US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.

A campaign to rid the tribal areas of al Qaeda switched to North Waziristan from South Waziristan last year, and there have been a series of fierce clashes in the past month and over 250, mostly tribal militants, have been killed since early March.

President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, last month warned foreign militants hiding in the tribal region to leave Pakistan or face annihilation.

REUTERS SHB PM1535