Watch Drone attacks 'linked' to suspected Europe terror plot

Drone attacks 'linked' to suspected Europe terror plot



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

Watch Drone killed 'British Taliban' plotter, reports say

Drone killed 'British Taliban' plotter, reports say
Abdul Jabbar, a UK citizen who lived in Pakistan, had links to Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, according to analysts


In this file photograph, a Pakistani soldier patrols the border with Afghanistan in North Waziristan, where Abdul Jabbar is said to have met with Taliban and al-Qaida militants Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian
A British militant killed in a recent American drone strike had ties to the failed Times Square bomber and was planning to set up a British chapter of the Taliban, according to reports.

Abdul Jabbar, a British citizen living in Pakistan, had "some links" to Faisal Shahzad, who has been jailed for life, but the nature of those ties was not clear, a Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters.

Jabbar was planning to lead a new group calling itself the Islamic Army of Great Britain, the BBC said, quoting a senior security sources overseas.

Three months ago Jabbar reportedly attended a meeting of 300 Taliban and al-Qaida militants in North Waziristan, the main hub of militant activity in Pakistan. At the meeting he was allegedly tasked with organising Mumbai-style attacks on targets in Britain, France and the UK. Jabbar received militant training in North Waziristan and survived a US drone strike targeting the network of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a major militant leader. Jabbar was killed in a second drone attack in September.

The emergence of Jabbar adds to a flurry of reports linking European militants based in Pakistan's tribal belt, and particularly North Waziristan, with plots against European cities.

After a drone strike that killed five German nationals in North Waziristan, German media carried details of alleged plots against prominent Berlin landmarks including a television tower. The US, UK, Japan and Sweden have warned their citizens to be vigilant against possible attacks while travelling in Europe. France has warned its citizens that a terror attack in the UK is "highly likely."

Jabbar reportedly arrived in Pakistan in May 2009. He was not a previously well-known jihadist leader but western intelligence agencies are worried about European militant wannabes streaming into the tribal belt.
Coppied by http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/06/british-taliban-linked-faisal-shahzad

Watch Iran unveils long-range bombing drone

Iran unveils long-range bombing drone

An Iranian Defense Ministry photo shows President Ahmadinejad and the long-range drone dubbed "Karrar" on August 22, 2010.
(CNN) -- Iran unveiled the first long-range military drone manufactured in the country on Sunday, state media reported.
The unmanned aerial vehicle is capable of carrying out bombing missions against ground targets and flying long distances at a high speed, Press TV said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the unveiling of the drone, dubbed the "Karrar," in a ceremony marking Iran's Defense Industry Day.
In February, Iran inaugurated the production line for two types of drones with bombing and reconnaissance capabilities, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.
Video: Iran nuclear plant fueling
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Iran
Drone Attacks
Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes since 1992, according to Press TV.
The country successfully tested a radar-evading drone with bombing capabilities in June 2009, Press TV said.
In March 2009, U.S. military officials said U.S. fighter jets in Iraq shot down an unmanned Iranian spy drone aircraft.
At the time, most major state-run media outlets in Iran did not carry news of any incident involving an Iranian drone and Iraq's national security adviser declined to comment.
Unmanned vehicles have become a staple of modern combat.
U.S. military officials have said remotely-controlled drones minimize risk and allow troops to spy on and attack enemy combatants.
Ahead of the drone's unveiling, Iran's defense minister said the country's military planned to reveal a project of "great importance" on Sunday, according to state-run Press TV.
"Iran's defense capability has reached a point which does not need any aid from other countries," Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency.
It is not clear whether the unveiling of the long-range drone was the announcement he was referring to.
Vahidi's announcement Saturday came as Iran began fueling its first nuclear energy plant in the southern city of Bushehr, the nation's state media reported.
Press TV said the effort will help the country create nuclear-generated electricity.
But some Western nations have questioned whether the nuclear fuel will be used solely for electricity, suggesting that Iran would eventually try to enrich uranium on its own, providing material for nuclear weapons.
The United States has questioned Iran's motives in continuing to enrich uranium within its borders.
"Russia is providing the fuel, and taking the fuel back out," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier this month.
"It, quite clearly, I think, underscores that Iran does not need its own enrichment capability if its intentions, as it states, are for a peaceful nuclear program," he said.
Iran has maintained all along that the site will produce energy, but the United States and some other international observers remain unconvinced.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking to Russian reporters in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday, brushed off Western concerns about the Bushehr facility, calling it "the most important anchor holding Iran to the nonproliferation regime," according to the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.
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