Leading Al Qaeda Figure Killed in Pakistan Missile Strike

(28 July 08 - RV) India's army says it traded fire with Pakistani troops in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

One Indian and at least three Pakistani soldiers were killed in the exchange.

The region has been the focus of two of the countries' three wars, although the frontier had been largely quiet since a truce was declared in late 2003.

Earlier today missiles hit a religious school in a village just inside Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, killing six people and injuring several others.

Reports emerging from Pakistan say a leading al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, was among those killed in the strike.

Taleban officials in the tribal area of South Waziristan confirmed his death.

Meanwhile in Washington DC, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is meeting this evening with US President George W. Bush at White House for talks on countering terrorism in the region.

Will Taylor reports.