PESHAWAR, June 4 (IANS): Pakistani terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri who forged close links with the Al Qaeda has been killed in a US drone attack, a media report said Saturday.
Kashmiri was killed in strikes in South Waziristan, Dawn.com quoted BBC Urdu service report as saying.
Kashmiri was the chief of the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) and was widely believed to have masterminded the May 22 attack on a naval base in Karachi.
Heavily armed terrorists stormed PNS Mehran base in Karachi and destroyed two surveillance aircraft. The 16-hour long siege left 10 security personnel and four terrorists dead.
The media report said that Kashmiri was killed Saturday in the drone strike that also left at least nine militants dead.
An official told BBC Urdu service that he had received information about Kashmiri's death but could not confirm it.
Witnesses were quoted as saying that Kashmiri had arrived in South Waziristan from the Khyber tribal region.
The news of Kashmiri's killing comes just a month after Osama bin Laden was gunned down May 2 by US commandos who stormed the Al Qaeda leader's high-walled hideout in Abbottabad city, barely 120 km from Islamabad.
Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda have vowed to avenge Osama's death. There have been a string of terror strikes across Pakistan since his killing.
