The alleged al Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot was killed in a US missile attack in north-west Pakistan early Saturday, officials told AFP. Rashid Rauf died when a missile hit a tribesman's house in the village of Alikhel, part of a border district known as a stronghold for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
He had been on the run from Pakistani authorities for just under a year. Also among the five killed in the early morning incident was Egyptian Abu Zubair al-Misri, another wanted al Qaeda operative, a senior Pakistani security official said on condition of anonymity.
"The transatlantic bombing plot alleged mastermind Rashid Rauf was killed along with an Egyptian al Qaeda operative in the US missile strike in North Waziristan early Saturday," a senior security official told AFP. A Western diplomatic source told AFP the missile was fired from a jet across the border in Afghanistan.
British-Pakistani Rauf was arrested in 2006 in Pakistan over the bomb plot, sparking a world-wide security alert, and 24 people were detained in Britain in a major swoop. A day later a massive security operation at London's Heathrow Airport resulted in mass cancellations for several days, amid fears of a terrorist attack using liquid explosives on London flights bound for the US and Canada.
The British government had requested Pakistan extradite Rauf to London, where he was wanted by police in connection with the murder of his uncle in 2002. But four years later an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan dropped terrorism charges against Rauf relating to the conspiracy, although its order was suspended when the Punjab government lodged an appeal.
Rauf had then faced charges including impersonation, carrying a fake identity card and fake documents, which he denied. He had been in custody under the Security of Pakistan Act when he escaped in December 2007 from Pakistani police custody, although all charges relating to terrorism had been dropped. The Pakistani government ordered a high-level investigation of the suspicious circumstances of his escape, in which he broke free from handcuffs and ran off.
Seven other men suspected of being part of the plot to bring down airliners over the Atlantic Ocean in 2006 face a retrial in England after a London jury failed to reach verdicts in September. Three of the British Muslims were convicted of complicity to murder, a charge the trio had admitted to - but with no-one was found guilty specifically of attempting to bring down airliners.
The plot allegedly targeted seven flights from Heathrow to New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal operated by United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada. The missile strike which killed Rauf came days after a US drone attack killed six rebels, including an Arab al Qaeda operative. That attack prompted Taliban militants based in the rugged tribal territory bordering Afghanistan to warn of reprisal attacks across Pakistan if there were more strikes by the US.
Terror network chief Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in the tribal territory. Washington has apparently stepped up its missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in tribal areas, however the Saturday morning attack appeared to be the first that was not fired by an unmanned CIA drone. Those strikes have come despite warnings from Pakistan that such attacks violate international law and could deepen resentment of the United States in the world's second-largest Islamic nation.
Pakistan has officially protested to the United States that strikes violate its sovereign territory, although some officials say there was a tacit understanding between the two militaries to allow such action. President Asif Ali Zardari recently promised zero tolerance against violations of his country's sovereignty.
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