Reports from Pakistan say a leading al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, has been killed in a missile strike.

Taleban officials in the tribal area of South Waziristan confirmed to the BBC that he was killed in a missile strike that left at least six people dead.

The US, which has a reward of $5m on his head, has not yet commented.

He was wrongly reported to have been killed in 2006 in a strike aimed at al-Qaeda deputy head Ayman al-Zawahiri.

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Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, 55, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, allegedly ran militant training camps in Afghanistan.

Local residents said the house belonged to a local tribesman and suspected militants used to stay there.

The strike came shortly before Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was due to meet US President George W Bush in Washington.

In recent months the US and its allies have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in military and other forms of assistance to help Pakistan's new government tackle militancy in border tribal areas.

(BBC)

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