BERLIN/LONDON, (Reuters) – A militant plot to stage coordinated attacks in Europe has been disrupted in its early stages by drone strikes in Pakistan, but it is not clear if the threat has been completely eliminated, security sources said yesterday. Germany said it knew of information pointing to possible al Qaeda attacks in Europe and the United States, and intelligence sources said security agencies had disrupted plans by Pakistan-based militants for simultaneous strikes in London, as well as in major cities in France and Germany.
The conspiracy involving al Qaeda and allied militants was in the early stages and would have involved groups of assailants taking and killing hostages, possibly along the lines of the 2008 raid in Mumbai in which 166 people died, the sources said.
But it was unclear if all the plotters had been eliminated in recent attacks by U.S. drones in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and Western security agencies were working closely to counter any threat that remained, they said.
The last successful major militant attack in the West was the 2005 bombings on London’s transport system that killed 52. Al Qaeda and south Asian militant groups have threatened to attack Western targets in retaliation for U.S. military action in Afghanistan and for the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. Intelligence sources said an increase in strikes by unmanned U.S. drone aircraft on suspected militants in Pakistan in the past few weeks was part of Western efforts to thwart the plot.
