Islamabad, Pakistan – Detained terror suspects told interrogators that al-Qaeda’s top leaders approved a plot to blow up planes from Britain to the United States, a senior Pakistani intelligence agent said Thursday.
Some of the suspects said No.2-ranked Ayman al-Zawahri probably authorized the plan, said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
Osama bin Laden’s Egyptian- born right-hand man, believed to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghan border, is the highest- ranked al-Qaeda leader named to date in relation to what authorities called a plot to destroy transatlantic jetliners with liquid explosives.
Pakistani intelligence officials have said the would-be London plane bombers wanted to carry out a large, al-Qaeda-style coordinated attack to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States but were too “inexperienced” to carry it out.
At least seven suspects were arrested in Pakistan, including Briton Rashid Rauf, who Pakistani authorities say had been in contact with al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prepare for the attacks.
Twenty-three other people have been arrested in Britain, including Rauf’s brother, Tayib. Initial reports from Pakistani intelligence agents indicated as many as 17 people were arrested.
Pakistani authorities said Rashid Rauf, arrested in the eastern Punjab city of Bhawalpur, had belonged to the outlawed Pakistani militant group, Jaish-e- Mohammed but later aligned himself with al-Qaeda.
The Taliban-linked Jaish-e- Mohammed, which has fought Indian forces in Kashmir, denied that Rauf had been a member.
The senior Pakistani intelligence official said there was no evidence that the group was linked to the foiled terror plot.
Hafiz Mohammed Sohaib, who teaches at an Islamic school in Bhawalpur, said Rashid Rauf married one of his sisters. Sohaib’s other sister is married to the brother of Maulana Masood Azhar, the wanted head of Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Pakistani officials said they were searching for three more suspects believed to be at large in Pakistan – a Briton of Afghan descent, an Eritrean and a Pakistani.
