ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - One of al-Qaida's top five leaders was killed near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Saturday.
Hamza Rabia, a key associate of al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, died Thursday in an explosion in the North Waziristan tribal area, and his remains were identified in DNA tests, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.
"He was al-Qaida's No. 5 and this is what we know," Ahmed said.
The circumstances of Rabia's death were not clear.
A top government administrator, Syed Zaheerul Islam, said Rabia died in an explosion while making bombs at a home near Miran Shah. Islam said the blast also killed four other people, including two local residents, and left two others injured, who have not been identified.
Other reports have said Pakistani security forces killed him in a missile attack.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf confirmed Rabia had been killed.
"Yes, indeed, 200 percent confirmed," Musharraf said in Kuwait at the start of a three-nation visit in the Middle East.
Al-Qaida's former operations chief, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, twice tried to assassinate Musharraf for making the Islamic nation a key ally of the United States in its war on terrorism. Libbi was captured in northwestern Pakistan on May 2 and later turned over to Washington for further investigation.
Military officials have said hundreds of Arab, Afghan and Central Asian militants are in North and South Waziristan.
Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in the area, fighting intense battles with militants and killing and capturing several of them. Officials have said they do not know the whereabouts of Zawahri or bin Laden.
