Blast 'kills senior al-Qaida operative'

A senior al-Qaida operative has died in an explosion in a north-western Pakistan tribal area, the president said today.

President General Pervez Musharraf, arriving in Kuwait at the start of a three-nation visit to the Middle East, confirmed that Hamza Rabia was among five people killed in the explosion Thursday in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.