Reuters
November 22, 2008 at 9:25 AM EST
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Rashid Rauf, a British militant with al-Qaeda links, was killed along with an Egyptian by a suspected U.S. missile strike in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, Pakistani television channels and intelligence officers said.
Mr. Rauf, the suspected ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners using liquid explosives, was among five victims of an attack believed to have been launched by a U.S. drone aircraft in the North Waziristan tribal region.
The plot, which was uncovered with the help of Pakistani intelligence, had the potential to kill on the scale of the Sept. 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks and resulted in tighter controls on cabin luggage hand-carried on board by air passengers worldwide.
Intelligence officers in northwest Pakistan, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Mr. Rauf, who escaped from custody after appearing in an Islamabad court last December, had been killed, though there was no official confirmation.
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