A Pakistani security official on Thursday confirmed at least three top al-Qaeda activists were believed killed in an American missile strike last week, including an explosives expert on the U.S. most-wanted list and a close relative of the network's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
A security official, according to the AP, said Egyptian Midhat Mursi was among the three top al-Qaeda operatives who were present in Damadola village at the time of the raid and whose bodies were to have been taken away by followers of the Osama bin Laden.
The U.S. Justice Department names Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, as an explosives expert and poisons trainer who operated a training camp at Derunta, near the eastern city of Jalalabad in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani official named two other foreigners as suspected killed in the missile strike: Abu Ubaida, whom he said was the main operations chief for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province and Abdul Rehman al-Misri, an Egyptian and close relative of al-Zawahri, possibly his son-in-law. However, he noted that their bodies have not been found.
The New York Times and ABC reported Thursday that al-Zawahri's son-in-law was also believed killed in the strike.
