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Terror plot mastermind killed by US missile in Pakistan
AFP - 2 hours 39 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - - The alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot was killed in a US missile attack in northwest Pakistan early Saturday, after spending almost a year on the run.
Rashid Rauf died when a missile hit a tribesman's house in the village of Alikhel, part of a border district that is a known stronghold of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
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 said 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 worldwide 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 him relating to the conspiracy, although its order was suspended when authorities lodged an appeal.
Rauf was being held under the Security of Pakistan Act and faced charges including impersonation, carrying a fake identity card and fake documents -- which he denied -- when he escaped from custody in December 2007.
He was heading back to jail in Rawalpindi following an extradition hearing in Islamabad when his uncle asked the police escorts if they could all drive there in his more comfortable van rather than in a police vehicle.
The officers agreed and even stopped at a fast food restaurant where the uncle bought a meal for all four of them. The officers then allowed Rauf to stop and pray at a mosque, where he was uncuffed and managed to make a break for freedom.
The Pakistani government ordered a high-level investigation into the suspicious circumstances of the escape.
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.
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.
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