Sat amid the ruins of his mud and concrete-walled home in the restive North Waziristan tribal agency, Haji Mohammad Siddiq told Reuters his 17-year old son and an eight-year-old nephew were killed in a missile attack, but denied there were any militants present.
"I don't know anything about them -- there were no foreigners in my house," Siddiq said. "I have nothing to do with foreigners or al Qaeda.
"We were sleeping when I heard two explosions in my guest room. When I went there I saw my son, Abdul Wasit, and my eight-year-old nephew, Noor Aziz, were dead," said the tall, moustachioed tribesman as he received condolences from a stream of relatives and neighbours.
This is, it seems, that missile blast that Pakistani and American authorities say killed Abu Hamza Rabia, whom they describe as al Qaeda's chief of international operations and binLaden's number three man.
Tribesmen showed reporters U.S.-marked fragments of missiles they said hit the village early on Thursday. One piece of casing clearly bore the words US and MISSILE.
Although Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday he was "200 percent" sure Rabia was dead, that sureness is based upon intelligence reports and message intercepts, intelligence sources said.
The body of the Al Qaida bigwig is nowhere to be found.
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