Officials have linked a recent increase in US drone missile attacks in Pakistan to efforts to disrupt a suspected al-Qaeda plot to attack European targets.
The strikes include one on Monday which killed eight militants, among them five German nationals, Pakistan's ambassador to the US told the BBC.
The strikes have targeted Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
A British man killed in a strike last month was to head an al-Qaeda faction in the UK, BBC's Newsnight has learnt.
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"The activity we see in North Waziristan, in terms of strikes and terms of measures to try to get people from al-Qaeda and associated groups, is connected to the terrorist warnings that we have heard about potential strikes in Europe," Pakistan's ambassador to the US, Hussein Haqqani, told the BBC.
Mr Haqqani said Pakistan was working with European and US intelligence agencies to prevent the suspected plans to attack Europe and that people should not panic.
Security sources say a German man detained in Afghanistan in July had provided the first information about plans to launch commando-style attacks on targets in Britain, France and Germany.
As well as Paris and London, Berlin was cited in a US warning at the weekend as a possible target for a suspected al-Qaeda plot.
Several countries have issued travel warnings to their citizens, saying they should be vigilant while travelling in Europe.
Hamburg link
The US has carried out 26 drone strikes on Pakistan in the past month - the highest monthly total for the past six years.
US drone attacks have increased in the past month
dentification of the victims is being made more difficult because Taliban militants sealed off the area after the missile strike, taking away the remains for burial.
There have been concerns about the presence of German nationals in Pakistan's tribal areas.
According to German media, several Islamist militants disappeared from their homes in Hamburg in 2009 and were thought to have headed for North Waziristan.
On Monday, the German interior ministry revealed that 70 Germans had been given paramilitary training in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a third of them had returned home.
In August, German police shut down a mosque in Hamburg which had been used by the 9/11 attackers and which the authorities believed was again becoming a focus for extremists.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11481733
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