Nearly 30 al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists taken out over the weekend by US drone strikes in Pakistan

(Reuters) - A series of drone strikes over the weekend and a confrontation on Monday near the border town of Peshawar between U.S. diplomats and local police added new strains to already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan.

U.S. and Pakistani government sources said Abu Yahya al Libi, a senior Al Qaeda leader who had survived previous drone attacks, was a target of one of the latest strikes, which occurred early on Monday in North Waziristan.

U.S. government sources said they were unable to confirm Abu Yahya had been killed. But officials said he was regarded as a very senior aide to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri, and that his death would be a major blow to what remains of the central al Qaeda network founded by the late Osama bin Laden.

Abu Yahya is a Libyan militant who has appeared in al Qaeda promotional video messages and once escaped from a U.S.-run prison in Afghanistan.

According to reports from the region, which American government sources did not contest, U.S.-operated drones launched three attacks in tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan between Saturday and Monday.

Reports from Pakistan said nearly 30 people were killed during the sequence of strikes, including four suspected militants on Saturday, ten suspected militants on Sunday, and 15 people in the strike in which Abu Yahya was targeted.

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