German terrorist killed in US drone strike in Pak linked to 9/11 plot

Washington, Oct 16 (ANI): A German terrorist killed in a US drone missile last week in Pakistan was in contact with 9/11 collaborators just days before the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, according to court records.

Three of the eight drone victims were part of a group of jihadists who left Hamburg in early 2009 for military training in Pakistan and to fight on behalf of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terrorist organization with ties to al Qaeda.

Ramzi Binalshibh, who allegedly helped to coordinate and finance the 9/11 attacks, placed a 34-second phone call on September 5, 2001, to the home of Naamen Meziche, who Pakistani officials say was one of eight people killed by the drone.

That phone call and alleged contacts that followed represent a possible link between the attacks in the US nine years ago and recent suspected terrorist plots to hit European cities, which the October 5 drone strike was intended to disrupt, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The eldest, Meziche, a 40-year-old French citizen of Algerian descent and longtime German resident, had been under investigation for nearly nine years in connection with the 9/11 plot, court records showed.

German authorities began investigating Meziche in late 2001 after they discovered telephone and email communications he maintained with suspected members of al Qaeda. (ANI)