An internet message from al-Qaeda has apparently confirmed that the group's top chemical-weapons expert, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, has died.
The al-Qaeda message did not specify the cause of his death, though he was widely reported to have been killed in an airstrike in Pakistan last week.
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The US, which has a $5m (Ј2.5m) reward on his head, has not yet responded.
It is believed that the US carried out last week's raid over Pakistan's South Waziristan region.
The al-Qaeda statement, dated 30 July, was posted on a website used by Islamist militants.
The message, signed by al-Qaeda's chief in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, said Midhat Mursi was among a group of "heroes" who had joined "the caravans of martyrs".
"An expert may have gone, but he has left behind - thanks be to God - experts whom he trained," the statement said.
Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, 55, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was an Egyptian national.
The US government's Rewards for Justice website described him as "an explosives expert and poisons trainer working on behalf of al-Qaeda".
(BBC)
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