Top Al Qaeda Terrorist Killed in Pakistan

Al Qaeda Number 3 Becomes Good Terrorist

MSNBC reports that the CIA has taken out al Qaeda third in command, Abu Hamza Rabia, with a missile fired from a predator into a safehouse in Pakistan:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The operational commander of al-Qaida and possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization, Hamza Rabia, was killed early Thursday morning by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials told NBC News.

Pakistan's president later confirmed the militant leader's death.

The official version of events from Pakistani officials is that Rabia was killed in an accidental explosion of bomb-making materials, NBC quotes anonymous officials who say he was exterminated in a predator raid.

Update: Rabia's death was reported confirmed via DNA test. Evidently there were some biggish chunks left lying around:

Officials said on Saturday that the death of Hamza Rabia, believed responsible for planning overseas strikes, had been confirmed by DNA tests after an explosion last week in one of Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.