Birmingham terror suspect killed in US raid is 'alive'

May 10 2009 Sunday Mercury

A MIDLAND terror suspect believed to have been killed in a US airstrike in Pakistan may be alive and plotting new attacks in Europe, according to security sources.

Rashid Rauf is said to have died after being targeted by an unmanned American Predator drone in the lawless North Waziristan region of Pakistan in November 2008.

US officials at the time said the attack had resulted in the deaths of al Qaida’s number three Abu Zubair Al Masri and two other senior al Qaida leaders, including Rauf.

They claimed the Birmingham Muslim had been in charge of the terror group’s external operations branch – making him responsible for attacks in Europe.

Yet his body was never produced, nor any DNA samples taken and checked to confirm that he had definitely been killed.

Rauf had fled from Alum Rock, Birmingham, to Pakistan in 2002.

Yet his family, who still live in Birmingham, have consistently denied that he is dead and his lawyer in Pakistan recently suggested his client may even be in the hands of Pakistani or American forces.

A source said: ‘‘Nobody believed the reports about him being murdered by the Americans in the tribal areas.