PAKISTAN: Pakistani tribesmen yesterday displayed parts of a US-marked missile they say hit a house and killed two boys, evidence at odds with the government which says an explosion there killed a senior al- Qaeda commander.
Whatever the cause of the blast, the death of Abu Hamza Rabia would be a coup for Pakistan and the United States which describe him as al-Qaeda's chief of international operations.
However, his body has not been found. Amid the ruins of his mud and concrete-walled home in the North Waziristan tribal agency, Haji Mohammad Siddiq said his 17-year-old son and eight-year-old nephew were killed in a missile attack, but denied there were any militants present.
"I don't know anything about them - there were no foreigners in my house," Mr Siddiq said. "I have nothing to do with foreigners or al-Qaeda. We were sleeping when I heard two explosions in my guest room. When I went there I saw my son, Abdul Wasit, and my eight-year-old nephew, Noor Aziz, were dead."
In Washington, US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said he could not confirm the death of Rabia.
"We've seen the reports out of Pakistan . . . We are not in a position at this point to publicly declare that he has been killed. If he has been killed, it's a very good development," Mr Hadley said on CNN's Late Edition.
Pakistan, sensitive to domestic public opinion, has denied US drone aircraft have carried out missile strikes on its soil in the past, and Washington has declined to comment.
But tribesmen in Haisori showed US-marked fragments of missiles they said hit the village early on Thursday. One piece of casing clearly bore the words "US" and "Missile".
"I heard more explosions and went out to the courtyard, and when I looked up at the sky, I saw a white drone," Mr Siddiq said. "I saw a flash of light come from the drone, followed by explosions."
Mr Siddiq, who is in his 50s, has been asked to appear later this week before a court convened by government-appointed tribal agency officials.
President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday he was "200 per cent" sure Rabia was dead.
However, confirmation of Rabia's death is based on intelligence reports and message intercepts, intelligence sources said, and Pakistani security forces have still to find a body.
Officials say Rabia's corpse, along with those of two comrades, was removed by other fighters and buried secretly.
An Arab television channel, al Arabiya, received a telephone call from an unidentified caller denying Rabia was dead.
According to Rohan Gunaratna, security analyst at Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Rabia's death would have a profound impact on al-Qaeda's ability to maintain its standing as the pre-eminent global militant organisation, as most veterans had been killed or captured.