Rauf, identified by Britain's intelligence agency Mi5 as al-Qaeda's 'Director of Operations' in Europe, is suspected of planning the bombing as part of a wider "master plan" for a number of attacks on cities across the Continent
Rashid Rauf, an al-Qaeda member who fled to his native country Pakistan from Britain seven years ago to evade arrest, is believed to have masterminded the plot to bomb shopping centres in Manchester over Easter, a media report claimed today.
Rauf, identified by Britain's intelligence agency Mi5 as al-Qaeda's 'Director of Operations' in Europe, is suspected of planning the bombing as part of a wider "master plan" for a number of attacks on cities across the Continent, The Sunday Times reported.
The report came despite Pakistani intelligence officials' claim that Rauf was killed last year when missiles fired from a CIA predator drone destroyed a mud-built bungalow in a village in Pakistan's troubled North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. A senior Scotland Yard official said one of the 14 suspects arrested by Belgian police last December had confessed that he had been "personally tasked" by Rauf to carry out the bombing.
In an interview with Mi5, he disclosed that Rauf, who fled to Pakistan seven years ago, had ordered a series of European attacks. Multiple cells, comprising at least 12 terrorists each, were dispatched last year from Pakistan's tribal areas to conduct a series of atrocities in the UK, France, Belgium and elsewhere. The cells have been acting under the direct orders of 27-year-old Rauf.
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