Top Qaeda operatives killed in Pak

The head of Al Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed last week in a suspected US drone strike in a tribal area on the Afghan border, local Pakistani officials confirmed.

The head of Al Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed last week in a suspected US drone strike in a tribal area on the Afghan border, local Pakistani officials confirmed on Friday.

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The men killed were Kenyan national Usama al-Kini, described as Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan, and his Kenyan-born lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, said the local officials, who asked not to be named.

Earlier a US official said the two men — who were on the FBI’s most wanted list in connection with the August 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania — had been killed in recent days.