One of the dead was reported to be Midhat Mursi Al Sayid, Al Qaeda's chemical and explosives expert, a Pakistani daily quoted an intelligence official as saying. He was a top bomb maker with the terror network with a five million dollar reward upon him.

Another was reported to be Abu Obaidah al-Masri, Al Qaeda's chief of operations for the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, Dawn newspaper said quoting security sources. Obaidah, according to the sources, was training and providing material support and liaising between senior Al Qaeda figures, besides providing them with logistic support and security.

Some officials believe that he could have been a replacement for Hamza Rabia, Al Qaeda's operational commander, who was killed in a similar missile attack in Asory village in North Waziristan on December 2.

The third was Abdur Rehman al-Maghribi, the Moroccon son-in-law of Zawahiri and the head of al Qaeda's media operations. There are also reports of the death of Mustafa Usman, an Egyptian national.

Pakistani officials said on Tuesday that four or five "foreign terrorists" were killed in the missile raid in Baiuron January 13 after being invited for a dinner in Damadola village in the remote tribal agency bordering Afghanistan.