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PESHAWAR: In the first drone strikes since the Pakistan military began its operation in South Waziristan a top al-Qaeda operative Abu Al-Masri is reported to have been killed in a strike from a US unmanned aircraft.

However, conflicting reports earlier suggested that Al-Masri may have been killed preparing suicide jackets in the village of Spalga.

Known as Mustafa Al-Yazid, he was urported to have links with Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi, whom US authorities arrested in an alleged plot to use homemade backpack bombs, he served three years in an Egyptian prison, in the 1980s, for supposed links to the group responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

After his release, he was also known as Sheik Said and Abu Saeed al-Masri and became a founding member of the terrorist group.

Abu Masri went into hiding after the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, but resurfaced in May 2007 during a 45-minute interview posted on the web by Al-Sabah.

In August 2008, Pakistani military officials claimed Abu Masri had been killed in fighting in the Bajaur tribal area along the Afghan border. However, he turned up in subsequent al-Qaida videos, all of which had clearly been made after the Bajaur fighting.

Abu Masri appeared on an al-Qaida video posted this month, vowing to avenge the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a CIA missile strike Aug, 6. -DawnNews