It’s not clear whether it was a work accident or a missile from a helicopter, but a top Al Qaeda freakazoid has been killed in Pakistan. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A senior al Qaeda commander is believed to have been killed in a tribal region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, a leading Pakistani newspaper reported on Saturday, though there was no official confirmation.

The daily Dawn, citing unnamed sources, identified the man as Abu Hamza Rabia, operational commander of al Qaeda, and said he was among five militants killed in the North Waziristan tribal region on Thursday.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed could not immediately confirm the report.

Hamza, an Egyptian, was said to be of the same rank as Abu Faraj Farj al Liby, who was dubbed by the United States as al Qaeda’s third-most important leader after he was captured in Pakistan last May.

Officials had said on Thursday that five militants were killed when a blast caused by explosives used for bomb-making destroyed the house they were staying in, but residents of the troubled region said a helicopter fired rockets into the house.

Dawn reported that Hamza’s body was not recovered from the ruins, but was taken away by his comrades, along with the bodies of two other foreign militants.

UPDATE at 12/3/05 8:02:09 am:

Musharraf confirms Al-Qaeda commander killed in Pakistan.

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - President Pervez Musharraf has confirmed a top Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan had been killed close to the border with Afghanistan, as he arrived on a visit to Kuwait.

Asked by reporters at the airport to confirm a newspaper report that Hamza Rabia was killed in a missile strike on Thursday, Musharraf said: “Yes indeed, 200 percent confirmed.”

Musharraf said Hamza was killed “in North Waziristan”, a tribal area on the Afghan border. “It is a place called Mirali, or little north of this town, that’s the place,” he said Saturday. “I think he was killed the day before yesterday (Thursday), if I am not wrong,” he added.

In Islamabad, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao also confirmed the killing and made clear Rabia was an Egyptian national. The Dawn newspaper, which had reported the news earlier Saturday, had said he was a Syrian.