An Egyptian Islamic militant presumed close to chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden was killed while handling a bomb dropped by US aircraft on Afghanistan, the head of an Islamic information agency said on Thursday. The Egyptian, named as Abu Bassir al-Masri, an alias, was killed Friday near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, Yasser al-Serri, head of the Islamic Information Observatory, said from London. Serri said Abu Bassir was a member of the Egyptian Jamaa Islamiya group linked to bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, and managed a guest-house at Jalalabad for fighters returning from or going to the front. “He was not a senior military commander as erroneous press reports have said,” Serri added. He said that Abu Bassir was with a number of others when a bomb fell nearby without exploding. One of them picked it up, but was told by another to get rid of it in case it was a delayed action device. “He threw it away and it exploded,” Serri said. “A splinter hit Abu Bassir and lodged in his spinal column.” – AFP