Confirmed: Rebel mosque leader killed in Pakistan

The chief cleric of the Red Mosque was killed today as troops were flushing out entrenched hold-outs inside a women’s religious school in room by room fighting, a Pakistan government spokesman said.

Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman for the Interior Ministry said that the radical cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was killed during the attack in Islamabad.

“Yes, he has died,” Cheema said.

Two security sources said Ghazi’s body was found in the basement of the school.

The army says that about 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed in the fighting today and that some 80 percent of the sprawling mosque compound has already been seized.