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Pakistani Taliban deny Zawahiri report
Islamabad (AFP) Aug 2, 2008 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 a missile strike this week. The Pakistani military said it had no information on the report by CBS, which said it had obtained an intercepted letter from a Taliban commander urgently requesting a doctor to treat the Egyptian. "This is totally baseless. The claim is rubbish, there is no truth in this," Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban Movement), told AFP. "Baitullah did not write any letter to anybody. He never asked for any help or assistance," said Omar, referring to Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who has been linked by Pakistani and US officials to Al-Qaeda. Pakistani officials have previously said that a July 28 missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal area killed Al-Qaeda's top chemical and biological weapons expert, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar. CBS said it appeared Zawahiri had also been targeted in the attack. "There is no evidence or information in this regard. We have no reliable information," chief Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. A senior military official based in northwestern Pakistan said he was "investigating the authenticity" of the report and added that authorities were trying to obtain Mehsud's alleged letter. An intelligence official based in South Waziristan said they had heard rumours about Zawahiri being targeted a few days ago "and we checked it but we have not been able to confirm it." CBS said the letter from Mehsud dated July 29 carried his seal and signature, refers to Zawahiri by name and says the Egyptian is in "severe pain" and his "injuries are infected." A US-based terrorism monitoring group, IntelCenter, said on Friday that it "is aware of and has been monitoring for a few days now reports that Al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed or severely injured in the strike." It said that if Zawahiri was dead, Al-Qaeda would be expected to release the news "with a fair amount of speed either in a video and/or written statement." strs-sz-dk/cc Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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