News Service from House Harris

ASIA: Terror plot mastermind killed by US missile in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Nov 22 AFP - The alleged mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot was killed in a US missile attack in north-west Pakistan early Saturday, officials said.

"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.

The al-Qaeda operative killed in the strike was identified as Abu Zubair al-Misri, the official added.

Rashid Rauf escaped in December 2007 from Pakistani police custody. He had been on the way to an extradition hearing.

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.

The British-Pakistani citizen's arrest in 2006 sparked a worldwide securityalert and 24 people were detained in Britain in a major swoop.

A day after the arrest a massive security alert was clamped on London's Heathrow Airport, with mass cancellations of flights for several days over fears of a terrorist attack.

He and the Egyptian al-Qaeda operative were killed along with at least two other militants in a US drone attack on the house of a local tribesman in the village of Alikhel, part of a district known as a stronghold for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, officials said.

The missile strike came days after another US drone attack which killed sixrebels, including an Arab al-Qaeda operative.

That attack prompted Taliban militants based in the rugged tribal territorybordering Afghanistan to warn of reprisal attacks across Pakistan if therewere more strikes by the US.

Terror network chief Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in thetribal territory, although there is no clear information about his whereabouts.

Washington has apparently stepped up its missile strikes against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in tribal areas, all using unmanned CIA drones.

The strikes have come despite warnings from Pakistan that such attacks violate international law and could deepen resentment of the United States in the world's second-largest Islamic nation.

Pakistan has officially protested to the United States that strikes violateits sovereign territory, although some officials say there was a tacit understanding between the two militaries to allow such action.

President Asif Ali Zardari recently promised zero tolerance against violations of his country's sovereignty.

AFP ht =0A