Al-Qaeda has confirmed that a top expert on chemical and biological weapons has died, an Islamist militant Web site said in a statement yesterday.
Abu Khabab al-Masri was among a group of “heroes” who have joined “the caravans of martyrs,” said the statement signed by Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, al-Qaeda’s general commander in Afghanistan.
Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed.
Pakistani officials had said that a missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal area on Tuesday killed Abu Khabab al-Masri, an Egyptian militant whose full name is Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.
Residents said the strike was carried out by a pilotless US drone.
Pakistan’s Taliban movement on Saturday denied a US television report that al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may have been wounded or killed in the same attack.
Al-Qaeda’s statement did not say how Abu Khabab al-Masri died, but it said he had sought “martyrdom” and repeatedly urged his command to assign him to carry out a “martyrdom-seeking operation.”
Meanwhile, a bus carrying a wedding party struck a mine in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province, killing the bride and groom and eight others, a police official said.
Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief, said children were also among the bus victims, which included eight wounded. He blamed Taliban militants for planting the road bomb.
Khan said the bride and groom were among the dead, but relatives said the groom was among the wounded.
The civilian deaths on Saturday came after the US-led coalition said some of its forces used air strikes to kill more than a dozen Taliban fighters, also in the south.
Coalition troops were in a joint patrol with Afghan forces when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in Uruzgan on Friday, the coalition said in a statement.
The joint force retaliated against the attackers and also called in the air strikes, it said. There were no casualties among Afghan or coalition troops.
Turning heads as they cruise past office buildings and malls, driverless taxis are slowly spreading through Chinese cities, prompting both wariness and wonder. China’s tech companies and vehicle manufacturers have poured billions of dollars into self-driving technology over the past few years in an effort to catch industry leaders in the US. Now the central city of Wuhan boasts one of the world’s largest networks of self-driving cars, home to a fleet of more than 500 taxis that can be hailed on an app just like regular rides. At one intersection in an industrial area of Wuhan, AFP reporters saw at least five
China and Vietnam yesterday inked 14 documents spanning cross-border railways to crocodile exports after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met with new Vietnamese leader To Lam in Beijing. The Vietnamese president’s visit to Beijing, his first overseas trip since becoming the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam earlier this month, signals a desire between the two communist neighbors to strengthen ties, amid growing trade and investment, despite occasional clashes over boundaries in the South China Sea. “China has always regarded Vietnam as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy, and supports Vietnam in adhering to the party leadership, taking the socialist
A former Saudi Arabian official alleged in a report that the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman forged the signature of his father on the royal decree that launched the kingdom’s years-long, stalemated war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the allegations made without supporting evidence by Saad al-Jabri in an interview published yesterday by the BBC, but the kingdom has described him as “a discredited former government official.” Al-Jabri, a former Saudi Arabian intelligence official who lives in exile in Canada, has been a years-long dispute with the kingdom as
‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’: Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges were assisting with emergency cases as more than 1 million doctors were expected to strike Hospitals and clinics across India yesterday turned away patients except for emergency cases as medical professionals began a 24-hour shutdown in protest against the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata. More than 1 million doctors were expected to join the strike, paralyzing medical services across the world’s most populous nation. Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges had been pressed into service for emergency cases. The strike, which began at 6am, cut off access to elective medical procedures and out-patient consultations, the Indian Medical Association said in a statement. The discovery of the 31-year-old doctor’s bloodied