Via the pro-Muslim terrorist BBC

Pakistani media said Rashid Rauf, born in Birmingham, was killed in a US air strike in North Waziristan, a haven for militants and the Taleban.

Mr Rauf, on the run after escaping from a Pakistani jail, was alleged to have helped the group planning the attacks.

Three men were convicted in the UK in September of conspiracy to murder.

News of the liquid bomb plot paralysed global air travel, prompting authorities to implement stringent security measures at airports around the world.

Rashid Rauf was arrested in Pakistan on 9 August 2006, at the request of US authorities, who feared he was about to disappear into the remote north-west of the country.

One day later authorities in the UK and the US implemented strict security measures at airports, fearing possible bomb attacks.

Hundreds of flights were delayed at airports around the world with massive disruption at major UK terminals and in the US, amid security service fears that militants were planning to mix liquids into lethal explosives.

Terrorism charges against the Briton were eventually dropped but he remained under detention in Pakistan as a "preventative measure".

Mr Rauf, who is thought to have Pakistani citizenship through his family connections, then escaped custody in December 2007 while on his way to an extradition hearing under police guard.

West Midlands Police in the UK were seeking his extradition from Pakistan in connection with a separate case over the suspicious death of an uncle.

‘Safe haven’

Several Pakistani TV channels reported that Mr Rauf was one of five people killed on Saturday by a presumed US attack in the country’s remote north-western region.

Unnamed Pakistani intelligence sources said that a wanted Egyptian militant, Abu Zubair al-Masri, was among the others killed.

However, the BBC has so far been unable to independently confirm the news.

Islamist militants use the mountainous tribal areas along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan as a safe haven for training and resupply.

The US regularly uses pilotless drones to attack militant targets in the region, a tactic that has caused growing resentment among Pakistan’s leaders.

On Thursday the government summoned the US ambassador in Islamabad to protest one day after an attack deep inside Pakistani territory killed five people – including at least one alleged militant.

Pakistan says the constant missile strikes infringe its sovereignty. The BBC’s Barbara Plett, in Islamabad, says the attacks spark widespread anger in Pakistan – especially among tribal figures.

In that context, Saturday’s attack will be reported in Pakistan as another violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and not for the possible killing of Rashid Rauf, our correspondent says.

The US says the insurgents use the territory to launch attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Islamabad has been pursuing a policy of ad-hoc peace deals with local Taleban commanders.

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Heads_Up FR

Via  Daily Mail Reporter

The Foreign Office was today investigating reports that a British man suspected of masterminding the 2006 airline bomb plot has been killed in a US missile attack in Pakistan.

Rashid Rauf, who is originally from Birmingham, was said to have been killed along with at least four other militants with links to al Qaida, according to reports on Pakistani television stations.

A Foreign Office spokesman was unable to confirm that a British national had been killed in the incident, which happened before dawn in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan.

Rashid Rauf: The fugitive and terror suspect is believed to have been killed in a US missile attack in Pakistan

‘We are currently investigating this at the moment, but we do not have any information,’ the spokesman said.

Reports in Pakistan suggested that Rauf – who escaped from custody outside an Islamabad court last December – was killed by an attack involving a pilot-less drone aircraft.

He escaped from custody in Pakistan after his guards stopped at a mosque so he could pray while transporting him to a jail near Rawalpindi.

The escape, which caused severe embarrassment to the Pakistani government, also prompted claims that Rauf had been taken to a secret detention centre by intelligence officials.

Rauf, who is thought to be aged in his mid-20s and to hold both British and Pakistani citizenship, is wanted by West Midlands Police over the 2002 murder of his uncle.

Rauf, from Ward End, Birmingham, left Britain shortly after his uncle, 54-year-old Mohammed Saeed, was stabbed to death in April 2002.

He is then thought to have been radicalised by an extremist Islamic sect.

Earlier this year, the West Midlands force confirmed that it was liaising with both the Home Office and the Foreign Office in respect of his extradition.

Rauf had been arrested in Pakistan in 2006 following an apparent tip-off from British anti-terrorism officers, days before a series of raids in the UK which were followed by the tightening of hand baggage restrictions on flights.

Scotland Yard today refused to discuss whether Rauf was wanted in connection with an alleged plot to bring down up to 10 transatlantic passenger jets.

Eight men went on trial at Woolwich Crown Court in April accused of conspiring to smuggle home-made liquid bombs on board a series of Atlantic passenger flights.

Three men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder, but they will face a retrial next year on a more serious charge alongside four other defendants on whom the jury did not return verdicts.