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| Pakistani rebel cleric 'killed' | Pakistani rebel cleric 'killed' |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A Pakistani cleric leading militants battling troops at Islamabad's Red Mosque, has been killed, Interior Ministry officials say. | |
| Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body was found in the basement of the mosque, hours after troops stormed it, officials said. | |
| The army says up to 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed, and about 50 women and children rescued. | The army says up to 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed, and about 50 women and children rescued. |
| Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law. | Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law. |
| This is naked aggression. My martyrdom is certain now Deputy mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi In pictures: Assault starts From joy to despair Eyewitness: Mosque siege | |
| Mr Ghazi is thought to have barricaded himself and others in the basement of the mosque after troops attacked overnight and took control of most of the complex. | |
| Officials said he was killed after he tried to surrender. It is not clear if troops or militants fired the shots which killed him. | |
| He was deputy leader of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque). His brother, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was head, was arrested trying to escape last week dressed in a burka. | |
| Hours before his reported death, Mr Ghazi accused the authorities of "naked aggression". | |
| "My martyrdom is certain now," he told Pakistan's Geo television station. | |
| Gamble | |
| Security forces began a full-scale siege of the Lal Masjid last Tuesday, not long after mosque students abducted seven Chinese workers they accused of running a brothel. | |
| Public anger in the capital had been mounting for months after they kidnapped policemen as well as people they considered to be involved in immoral, un-Islamic activities. | |
| The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the military operation is a gamble for President Pervez Musharraf who risks a backlash from supporters of those inside the mosque. | |
| In recent days the army has redeployed thousands of troops in north-western Pakistan where pro-Taleban militants opposed to President Musharraf have been carrying out a string of attacks said to be linked to the mosque siege. |