Protests over fatal missile strike

PAKISTANIS yesterday protested against a suspected American missile strike that intelligence officials said killed a British citizen linked to a plot to blow up jetliners, saying their Western-allied government must stop the cross-border attacks.

Pakistani intelligence officials said British citizen Rashid Rauf died in Saturday’s raid, but there was no independent corroboration of the death.

His death would be a blow to al-Qaida and Taliban extremists believed to be sheltering in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. It would also bolster US claims that missile strikes on extremist strongholds in north-western Pakistan are protecting the West against another September 11-style terrorist attack.

About 100 people in the eastern city of Multan demonstrated the strike, chanting slogans of “Down with America” and Three Pakistani intelligence officials and a senior government official said Rauf and a Saudi militant called Abu Zubair al-Masri were among five killed in Saturday’s raid in North Waziristan, Pakistan.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman confirmed that Rauf and al-Misri were targeted in the raid.

Taliban spokesman Ahmedullah Ahmedi insisted only civilians and no foreigners were killed in the pre-dawn missile attack in the village of Ali Khel.

Rauf, who is of Pakistani origin, has been on the run since last December, when he escaped from police escorting him back to jail after an extradition hearing in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Britain was seeking his extradition ostensibly as a suspect in the 2002 killing of his uncle there, but Rauf had allegedly been in contact with a group in Britain planning to smuggle liquid explosives onto trans-Atlantic flights.

The plot’s revelation in August 2006 prompted a major security alert at airports worldwide and increased restrictions on carry-on items.