Pakistani intelligence officials have said a senior al Qaeda operative was killed by a US drone aircraft missile strike in Pakistan.
Ilyas Kashmiri is regarded as one of the most dangerous militants in the world.
His death, if confirmed, is another intelligence coup for the United States after US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a town close to Islamabad on 2 May.
It is not the first time reports of Kashmiri's death have surfaced. He was reported to have been killed in a September 2009 strike by a US drone aircraft.
The Pakistani Taliban, which has strong ties to al Qaeda, said earlier that reports of Kashmiri's death were false.
The Pakistani media has speculated that Kashmiri was the mastermind of a militant siege of a Pakistani naval base last month which humiliated the Pakistani military.
