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Islamabad: Missiles fired by suspected US drones killed alleged British militant Rashid Rauf and Egyptian Al Qaida operative Abu Zubair Al Masri in a tribal district near the Afghan border yesterday, security sources said.
Three missiles destroyed a house in a village located about 15km west of Mir Ali, the main town in North Waiziristan, which is known to be a hub of Al Qaida-linked militants.
Five people, among them Rauf and Al Masri, were killed and six others injured in the pre-dawn attack, the sources said, adding that the razed house belonged to local tribesman Malik Khaliq Noor.
Rauf, wanted in Britain over a failed plot to blow up transatlantic airlines, had been arrested in Pakistan in August 2006.
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan dropped terrorism charges against Rauf relating to the conspiracy, although the order was suspended when the Punjab government lodged an appeal. He escaped from police custody in 2007 and has since been on the run.
The missile strike was the second in North Waziristan this week. In the earlier attack a major Arab Al Qaida operative identified as Abdullah Azam Al Saudi was among six people killed, according to security officials.
More than 20 attacks by suspected US drones have been reported since September in the tribal territory, where Pakistani army has been battling Taliban militants in Bajaur district and also in Swat valley in the northwest.
The drone incursions and missile strikes have drawn strong condemnation from the eight-month-old democratic government as infringement of Pakistan's sovereignty.
Following the last strike, US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson was called to the Foreign Office and a protest was lodged. "The transatlantic bombing plot alleged mastermind Rashid Rauf was killed along with an Egyptian Al Qaida operative in the US missile strike in North Waziristan early on Saturday," a senior security official said.
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