PESHAWAR, Pakistan, April 21 (UPI) -- Pakistani security forces claim they have killed a suspected senior al-Qaida militant in a shootout in the nation's northwestern tribal area.
A man believed to be the Saudi national Abu Marwan al-Suri -- an associate of al-Qaida's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri -- was killed in the Bajaur district of the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the BBC reported Friday.
A military spokesman said that DNA tests would be performed to determine the dead man's identity.
The man thought to be al-Suri opened fire on security forces at a checkpoint when his vehicle was stopped. A Pakistani guard was killed and two others were injured in the gunfight.
Pakistan has deployed nearly 80,000 troops to its border with Afghanistan to track down militants hiding in the rugged tribal areas.
