ISLAMABAD - Pakistan, a key ally in US-led "war on terror", Thursday 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 Tasnim Aslam told AFP.
"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 over its refusal to hand over Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden wanted in the September 11 attacks on the United States.
06/08/2006 09:48 GMT