clipped from: www.smh.com.au   
This file handout still photo released by Al-Qaeda's media wing As-Sahab and provided 03 November 2007 shows Al-Qaeda leader Abu Laith al-Libi during training with insurgents.

This file handout still photo released by Al-Qaeda's media wing As-Sahab and provided 03 November 2007 shows Al-Qaeda leader Abu Laith al-Libi during training with insurgents.
Photo: AFP

A senior al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, described by Western authorities as one of Osama bin Laden's top six lieutenants, has been killed, US officials and an al-Qaeda-linked website said today.
He was the first spokesman to announce bin Laden had survived the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

"May God accept (Libi as a martyr)," the Ekhlaas.org website said. A Western official and senior US defence official confirmed the website's report.

"You're talking about a very seasoned commander ... the top or one of the absolute top military commanders that al-Qaeda had in the region. That's what they lost,"

An intelligence official told Reuters in Pakistan the attack was believed to have been carried out by a pilotless US Predator aircraft flown across the nearby border with Afghanistan.