Pakistan says death of Zarqawi 'Significant' Development 
'Pakistan Times' Federal Bureau

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, a key ally in US-led "war on terror", has described the death of the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a "significant" development.

"It is a significant development, if it is true," foreign ministry spokeswoman Ms Tasnim Aslam said on Thursday.

"We are also watching the developments," she said in her brief initial reaction.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at a news conference in Baghdad announced Thursday that Zarqawi, blamed for a string of bloody attacks and kidnappings in Iraq, "has been eliminated."

Pakistani troops are engaged in hunting Al-Qaeda fugitives and Taliban loyalists who sneaked into the country from neighbouring Afghanistan after a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Pakistani forces have killed and captured hundreds of foreign militants since the ouster of the Taliban regime.●