Birmingham's Rashid Rauf linked to new US terror plot

Nov 15 2009 by Ben Goldby, Sunday Mercury

He is accused of buying large quantities of hydrogen peroxide from beauty suppliers to use in bombs.

He was arrested in an FBI sting in September, with Attorney General Eric Holder describing the alleged plot as “one of the most serious in the United States since September 11.”

The lawless North Western region of Pakistan where Zazi is thought to have trained is the alleged hiding place of Birmingham baker’s son Rauf.

The Islamist fanatic, said to be the mastermind of the failed 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up Trans-Atlantic airlines, is suspected of being Al Qaida’s chief recruiter for European attacks.

In September we revealed that signals intelligence received by spies in Pakistan confirmed that Rauf was alive, despite being reportedly killed in a November 2008 US missile attack on an Al Qaida stronghold.

The body of the former Washwood Heath High School pupil was never produced and no DNA samples were taken to confirm that he died. His family, from Ward End, has consistently denied he is dead.

And a leaked list of most wanted terror suspects compiled in September this year by authorities in North Western Pakistan lists the Brummie as the fifth most dangerous man in the region.

Rauf is believed to have turned to terrorism after fleeing to Pakistan in 2002 following the brutal murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed in Alum Rock.

He met and married a close relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the notorious founder of Kashmiri terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, in 2003.

Since then he has risen to become a leading figure in the group and is reported to be Al Qaida’s contact for British men travelling to Pakistan to fight the Allied Forces in Afghanistan.