Al-Qaeda bombmaker killed

Al-Qaeda has confirmed one of its top chemical and biological weapons experts died in an air strike.

Abu Khabab al-Masri was killed with three other militants in a suspected US strike in Pakistan last week.

Masri, who carried a $5 million bounty on his head, was identified by Pakistani officials as the likely target of the attack on a house in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

An al-Qaeda statement posted on Islamist websites said Masri, referred to as the "expert", had left behind him a generation of students who would avenge his killing.

The statement, attributed to al-Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, named three other militants killed alongside Masri on July 28.

But the terror group has denied reports that al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, was killed in the same missile attack.

Masri, a 55-year-old Egyptian chemist, was regarded as one of the group's top bomb makers.

Police in Kenya said one of Africa's most wanted al-Qaeda operatives, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, narrowly escaped capture.

Mohamed left an address in the Indian Ocean resort of Malindi late on Saturday just minutes before officers crashed through the door.

The United States has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the Comorian, who speaks five languages and is said to be a master of disguise, forgery and bomb making.

He is accused of playing a lead role in the 1998 embassy attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 240 people.

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