The United States has had "no confirmation" that al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri died in a drone strike last week, a US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said Monday. A senior Pakistani security official said two days ago there were "strong indications" that Kashmiri - who had a maximum US bounty of $5 million on his head - had been killed in a US drone strike last Friday.
"We have no confirmation that he's dead" as of Sunday evening, the official told AFP in Kabul on day three of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates's farewell visit to Afghanistan. But Pakistani officials have stressed that it was impossible to provide 100 percent confirmation, so soon after the attack, without access to the bodies. The corpses were burnt beyond recognition and swiftly buried. Militants barred access to the site of the attack in Ghwakhwa in South Waziristan, a militant stronghold despite a sweeping Pakistani offensive in 2009.