August 04, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 1 429

CAIRO, Aug 3: Al Qaeda confirmed in a web statement on Sunday the death of a senior commander known as an explosives expert, who is believed to have been killed in a US air strike in Pakistan last week.

The statement said Abu Khabab Al-Masri and three other commanders were killed. It did not give details on when or how they were killed, but Pakistani authorities have said they believe Al-Masri died in an American air strike last Monday on a compound near the Afghan border.

Pakistani officials have said six people were killed in that strike, in the South Waziristan tribal region.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian militant whose real name is Midhat Mursi, had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States. He is accused of training militants to use poisons and explosives, and is believed to have trained suicide bombers who killed 17 American sailors on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

He is also believed to have helped run Al Qaeda’s Darunta training camp in eastern Afghanistan, until the camp was abandoned amid the 2001 US invasion of the country. There he was accused of having conducted experiments in chemical and biological weapons, testing materials on dogs.

The Al Qaeda statement called Al-Masri and the other three slain commanders “a group of heroes” and warned of vengeance for their deaths.

The statement, whose authenticity could not be independently confirmed, was dated July 30 and signed by Al Qaeda’s top Afghan leader, Mustafa Abu Al-Yazeed. It was posted on a website where Al Qaeda usually issues official statements and videos of its leaders.—AP