Pakistani Official: Drone Strike Allegedly Kills Top Al-Qaeda Leader

June 05, 2011
A Pakistani intelligence official says a U.S. drone strike killed top militant leader Ilyas Kashmiri in an attack in South Waziristan on June 3.
 
The report has not been officially confirmed. U.S. officials have not yet responded.
 
Kashmiri is said to have been killed at a militant compound in the Ghwa Khwa area in the country's south.
 
The 47-year-old militant leader, one of five most-wanted militant leaders in Pakistan, was also the subject of a mistaken September 2009 report claiming he had been killed.
 
In the 1990s, Kashmiri joined jihadi fighters in Afghanistan and Kashmir, then controlled by India.
 
He is accused of planning a string of high-profile attacks on Western and Pakistani security-force targets inside Pakistan.
 
Indian officials have also alleged that he was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed over 160 people.
 
compiled from agency reports