Al Qaeda No. 3 dead, but how?

Witnesses say missile strike; Pakistani officials dispute that claim

Saturday, December 3, 2005; Posted: 5:15 p.m. EST (22:15 GMT) LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani officials confirmed Saturday the recent death of a top al Qaeda official, but witnesses and officials gave conflicting stories of how he died.

Without elaborating, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he was "200 percent" certain that Abu Hamza Rabia, the operations chief of the al Qaeda terrorist network, was killed Wednesday. He was killed north of the border town of Miram Shah, Musharraf said during a visit to Kuwait.

Other Pakistani officials also confirmed that Rabia died during an explosion at a home in the North Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Residents who witnessed the blast say the explosion was caused by a missile strike, which Pakistani officials deny. Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told CNN that Rabia apparently died while working with explosives.

Another Pakistani official, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, said only that the explosion killed "five miscreants, including three foreigners," and injured two others. Authorities are examining the home, he said.

One more significant removal of a "miscreant". I am pleased, but the destruction of the higher-ups in Al Qaeda does not seem to be happening often enough or fast enough.