Al-Qaeda operative killed in Pakistan Bajaur missile strike

Islamabad, Jun 2 (UNI) A leading al-Qaeda trainer and explosives expert, involved in a range of European terrorist networks, has been killed in Pakistan in a recent missile strike by the US-led forces in Afghanistan, a media report said.

Abu Suleman al-Jazairi, an experienced Algerian militant, was killed in last month's strike at Damadola village that killed 14 people, Pakistan's The Nation newspaper reported today, quoting 'The Observer'.

Forty-five-year old al Jazairi, considered the director of external operations for Al-Qaeda, died along with at least 14 others, when the house in which he was staying in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal district was hit by a missile fired from a Predator, an American pilotless drone.

The house, targeted and destroyed by the drone, is believed to belong to a former Afghan Taliban defence minister, Maulvi Obaidullah, members of whose family, including women and children, are thought to have died.

The surrounding areas are in the hands of militants linked to the Pakistan Taliban militant group, blamed for the killing of former premier Benazir Bhutto last year.

According to CIA chief Michael Hayden, ''The ability to kill and capture key members of al-Qaeda continues, and keeps them off balance - even in their best safe haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

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