Drone missile strike kills British 'liquid-bomb plotter'

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/3503211/Drone-

missile-strike-kills-British-liquid-bomb-plotter.html

Drone missile strike kills British 'liquid-bomb plotter'

The alleged British mastermind of an audacious terrorist plot was

killed yesterday by a missile strike in Pakistan.

Alderson, Rayment and Massoud Ansari in Islamabad

Last Updated: 11:45PM GMT 22 Nov 2008

Rashid Rauf, 27, who was brought up in Birmingham, was killed along

with at least four other alleged militants in the attack on the house

in the North Waziristan area.

Rauf, who had been on the run after escaping from Pakistani custody

last year, had been accused of playing a key role in a liquid-bomb

plot allegedly targeting transatlantic airliners in 2006. He had been

arrested in Pakistan in August 2006.

Senior Pakistani government officials last night confirmed reports

that Rauf had been killed by precision-guided missiles from a drone.

The target was in the village of Alikhel, part of a district known as

a stronghold for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

" 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, " a senior Pakistani security official

said.

The pre-dawn attack came just two days after Pakistan lodged a

protest with the US ambassador over missile attacks on its territory.

Pakistan said the strikes infringed its sovereignty.

Islamist militants use the mountainous tribal areas along the between

the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as a safe haven for training and

resupply.

Security officials said another of the dead was Abu Zubair al-Masri,

an Egyptian militant suspected of terrorism. Five people are believed

to have died with a further six wounded.

Sherry Rehman, the Pakistani information minister, told The Sunday

Telegraph: " Sources have confirmed to us that Rashid Rauf and al-

Masri were the targets and they have been killed. However, it would

have been better if Pakistani authorities had been alerted for local

action. Drone incursions create a strong backlash. "

In the past month there have been 25 US drone attacks from

Afghanistan, killing almost 250 and wounding scores of others.

Rauf, who had British and Pakistani citizenship, escaped from

Pakistani authorities after appearing before a judge in an Islamabad

court in December last year. While taking him back to jail, his

guards had stopped at a mosque so he could pray. At the time, he

faced extradition to Britain.

The escape caused severe embarrassment to the Pakistani government

and prompted unconfirmed claims that Rauf had been taken to a secret

detention centre by intelligence officials.

After the escape, Khalid Pervez, a city official, said that Rauf

managed to open his handcuffs and evade police guards taking him back

to Adiala prison in the nearby city of Rawalpindi. Despite a huge

manhunt, he was not recaptured.

Details of the liquid-bomb plot emerged in August 2006 and paralysed

global air travel. It prompted stringent security measures at

airports globally.

A senior Pakistani official had previously described Rauf as " an al-

Qaeda operative with linkages in Afghanistan " .

Rauf is understood to have left Birmingham following the stabbing of

his uncle, Mohammed Saeed, 54, in April 2002. Once in Pakistan, he

quickly fell in with al-Qaeda sympathisers.

For many of the young British-born radicals who volunteered to join

the jihad against Britain and other western countries, Rauf would

have been their first point of contact on arriving in Pakistan. He

would have made sure they were not followed and would have given them

food and shelter in a safe house before taking them to training camps

in northern Pakistan. In recent years, the war against al-Qaeda has

been defined by new, more deadly tactics and the CIA has been

successfully " degrading " al-Qaeda's leadership by assassinating its

leaders using the US Air Force's unmanned Predator.

The tactic is something of a double-edged sword. While it has had

undoubted success in disrupting

al-Qaeda, the civilian deaths, which often accompany intelligence-led

operations, are thought to be further radicalising increasing numbers

of young men in Pakistan and Britain.

Rauf's lawyer, Hasmat Habib, said the suspected militant's family in

Pakistan had no information about his apparent death. " He was an

innocent man, a god-fearing, devout polite man and this is an extra-

judicial killing, " he said.

Rauf's family had little comment at their terraced home in the Ward

End area of Birmingham yesterday. Two men initially emerged from the

property, but one, with a full beard and wearing a blue tracksuit,

instructed the other to go back into the house.

The remaining man, believed to be a relative of the alleged

terrorist, then ordered the media to leave the driveway of his home

or risk injury. " I am angry, " he said. " For your own safety, all I

can say to you is, 'goodbye'. "

Earlier this year, Rauf's younger brother, Tayib Rauf, 24, said

he " feared for Rashid's life " . He added: " My fear is that he may be

killed – when previous prisoners have escaped out there, they have

been found dead. When we found out it had happened, I just couldn't

believe it. I thought, 'Why has he done that?' At least when he was

arrested, we knew he was safe and OK – but now I'm expecting the

worst. "