A fugitive British militant linked to an alleged UK plot to use liquid bombs to blow up transatlantic airliners has been killed in Pakistan, reports say.

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. 

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.

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. 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.

One of five children, Rashid Rauf was the son of a baker who arrived in the UK in the 1960s.

His father Abdul Rauf, described by relatives as a "very simple, God-fearing person", had settled in Birmingham where he brought up his four sons and a daughter.

Pakistani authorities say Rashid Rauf left Britain for the country in 2002 and stayed in the Punjab province.

It is thought he had been radicalised by an extremist sect.

Mr Rauf had been wanted for questioning by West Midlands Police in relation to the murder of his uncle, 54-year-old Mohammed Saeed, who was stabbed to death.

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

During his time in Pakistan, Rauf is reported to have married a relative of one of Pakistan's most notorious militant leaders, Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group which operates in Indian Kashmir.

US authorities alleged that while in Pakistan Mr Rauf became involved in an alleged plot to explode liquid bombs aboard aeroplanes. The exposure of the alleged plot led to tough restrictions being imposed on air passengers across the globe.

However, when the accusations came to light and Mr Rauf was arrested in August 2006, his grandmother insisted he was innocent.

"He has no bad habits nor did he keep bad company," Fazeelat Bibi apparently told the BBC during an interview from the family's ancestral village of Haveli Bagal, about 100km south-east of Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

"He is a humane and God-fearing person, obedient and punctual at prayers. Even a cat would scare him and he would not even crush an ant under his feet."

She had not had any contact with Mr Rauf since he had left Birmingham four years previously but said her last wish was to see him again.

Mr Rauf escaped from police custody in December 2007, after being allowed to enter a mosque to pray. There was much speculation over the ease of his escape, causing embarrassment for the Pakistani authorities.

The US authorities had pledged to track him down ever since. Their pledge was, thankfully, fulfilled.

Matt Kilkenny is based in Chicago and is a former US Government employee.

---

Bookmark with: