Drone Strike Killed European Plotters

At least two Germans and three others killed in a Central Intelligence Agency drone strike Tuesday in Pakistan were involved in plotting terrorist attacks in Europe, Pakistani officials said Friday.

The investigation of the European plots is focusing on three German brothers: Imram al Amani, who was killed in Tuesday's strike, a second brother who survived the attack, and a third brother in Germany, according to a German intelligence official.

The U.S. has stepped up drone strikes on targets in Pakistan in recent weeks, amid growing concern about the impact of Pakistan-based militants on the Afghan war effort.

The intensified campaign was also intended to break up suspected terrorist plots aimed at hitting cities in Europe. News of the plots prompted the U.S., U.K. and other countries to issue warnings about travel to European countries. Germany hasn't increased its terrorism alert level as a result of the recent events, an interior ministry spokesman said.

Investigations into the plots have drawn attention to the rise of Western Islamist extremists with ethnic roots in the Mideast, Africa or South Asia.

One concern, intelligence officials say, is that citizens of Western countries are attractive to al Qaeda because they can travel undetected more easily.

The two German brothers traveled to Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area last year to "fight for Islam," while the third brother remained in Germany, the German official said. Security officials have focused on the brothers for more than a year, after one of them appeared in a propaganda video bearing a long sword, the official said.

That attention has now increased: Shortly after the strike Tuesday, the brother who remains in Pakistan swore he would avenge his deceased family member, the intelligence official said.

Police have the third brother under close observation in northern German, this official said. Neither brother could be reached to comment. The identity of the second German killed Tuesday, and of the others, couldn't be confirmed.

The target of the strike was determined in part from information gleaned from Rami Makanesi, a German in his mid-20s who was arrested in Pakistan's tribal regions in June, the Pakistani official said.

A joint interrogation of Mr. Makanesi by the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency led officials to a house that the Germans were renting in Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan.

While Pakistan has publicly criticized the drone strikes, most of which are unilateral, it has at times aided the U.S. Cooperation between the CIA and ISI has improved, both sides say, when it concerns militants from the Pakistani Taliban, who have targeted Pakistan. The people killed Tuesday were linked to the Pakistani Taliban, the senior military official said.

However, tensions between Washington and Islamabad have been high, with the U.S. accusing the ISI of supporting the Afghan Taliban and charging Pakistan with failing to fight militants who attack U.S. and NATO forces.

A major al Qaeda operative, U.S. officials said, is believed to be involved with at least one of the European plots: Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, an al Qaeda operational commander who has threatened to carry out commando-style attacks on the West in the mold of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

Mr. Kashmiri is believed to have an extensive contact network in Europe and has been indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for conspiring with alleged Mumbai reconnaissance operative David Coleman Headley in a separate scheme to bomb a Danish newspaper.

A former Pakistani military commander, Mr. Kashmiri is also the leader of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, a group the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.

A detained German citizen of Afghan origin, Ahmed Sidiqi, has been a key source of information about the European plots, intelligence officials said.

Information gleaned from Mr. Makanesi corroborated details provided by Mr. Sidiqi, who was picked up in Afghanistan in July and is being held there by the U.S. at Bagram Air Base, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

Mr. Makanesi became disillusioned with his training in Pakistan and wanted to quit, the Pakistani military official said. He was arrested in June at a security checkpoint while trying to leave North Waziristan disguised in a burqa, the head-to-toe veil worn by devout Muslim women.

Both Mr. Makanesi and Mr. Sidiqi are linked to the Hamburg mosque that was frequented by Mohammed Atta, one of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. German authorities closed the mosque in August for fomenting radicalism.

A senior Pakistani military official also said Sheikh Fateh al-Misri, an Egyptian believed to be al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan and Afghanistan, was killed late last month in a CIA drone strike in the tribal regions that border Afghanistan.

It wasn't clear whether information from either of the detained men led to the attack on Mr. al-Misri.