LONDON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A British man killed in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan was slated to lead an al-Qaida cell in the United Kingdom, officials revealed.
U.S. missile strikes in the tribal provinces of Pakistan that killed a key al-Qaida leader last month were said to have disrupted a plot to strike European targets in a raid reminiscent of the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.
German officials early this week said they believed around 70 German nationals were trained by militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Around 20 of them allegedly returned to Germany.
A German man, Ahmad Sidiqi, is said to have revealed to U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan that terrorist cells had been already sent to Britain and Germany to carry out commando raids.
Hussein Haqqani, the Pakistani envoy to the United States, meanwhile, confirmed that five Germans were killed in the latest strikes on militants inside Pakistani territory, the BBC reports.
Haqqani told the British broadcaster that the rise in the number of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan is "connected" to the terror warnings issued across Europe.
The BBC adds that Pakistani sources said a British man killed in an airstrike in September was on his way to the United Kingdom to head a terrorist cell there.
The U.S. military conducted 26 drone strikes on Pakistani targets in September, the most in six years.
