Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan reportedly dead

REUTERS

"An important Al-Qaeda commander - namely Umar Lateef, a Pakistani national - was killed in an encounter with local security agencies," provincial home minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters.

"Lateef was a senior commander of Al-Qaeda for Pakistan's Baluchistan and south Punjab regions. His brother Bilal succeeded in escaping during the raid, probably to neighbouring Afghanistan," Bugti said.

The minister said Lateef had established an Al-Qaeda network and was supervising its "terrorist activities and providing travel and logistical facilities to terrorists in both Baluchistan and south Punjab as well as in Afghanistan".

As UNIAN reported earlier, the leader of the Afghan Taliban terrorist movement Mullah Mohammad Omar was reportedly dead.