Military sources said Atwah was killed along with six other Islamic radicals in a missile attack by Pakistani Cobra helicopters on their hideout in the North Waziristan tribal region just before midnight on Wednesday.The strike was ordered after the military received information, apparently gleaned from other radicals detained in the past month, that the Egyptian explosives expert was hiding in a walled compound in Nagar, a village about four miles south of the town of Miranshah.
[A senior U.S. intelligence official said the man the Pakistanis reported killing was "al-Qaeda's key explosives trainer," Washington Post staff writer Walter Pincus reported. Atwah is a very important figure but is not near the top of the network's hierarchy, said the official, who was unable to independently confirm the Pakistani assertion.]
Wali Mohammad Khan, a commander of local extremists in Nagar, earlier denied that any foreigners were in the compound when it was attacked. "They were all local tribesmen, and the five bodies were immediately buried," he said. The funeral of two others killed in the attack would be held later in the day, he added.