Two Fewer At Breakfast
This morning, as a cross-border missile strike reportedly hits its mark:
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, officials said.
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 the 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 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 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 of flights for several days over fears of a terrorist attack using liquid explosives on flights from London to the US.
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 missile strike which killed him came days after a US drone attack killed six rebels, including an Arab Al-Qaeda operative.
via Hot Air, where Ed notes the Paks don’t like the missile lobbing, but it works.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:58 am on Saturday, November 22, 2008
3 Responses to “Two Fewer At Breakfast”
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November 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
More eggs benedict for the rest of us.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Would we have done this if Obama was President? Once he’s in office, will terrorists be free to move around their virtual sanctuary in Pakistan and put their plots into action, without worrying about any threat from us? That’s the big question.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
My guess is that the US has a secret deal with the Paks, and they would probably ask us not to stop, because they have as much to fear from the terrorists as we do.