Qaeda planner linked to plots in UK believed dead

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda planner Abu Obaidah al Masri, a main suspect in the 2005 London public transit bombings and a foiled 2006 plot to blow up passenger planes, is believed dead from natural causes, U.S. and British officials said on Wednesday.

"There is compelling reason to believe that Abu Obaidah is dead," a U.S. counterterrorism official said on condition of anonymity. McClatchy newspapers reported that Masri died of hepatitis in Pakistan.

The U.S. official said Masri appeared to have died of natural causes, and a British official said his death had been known to security sources for some time.

"He was a major operational figure," another U.S. official said of Masri, the nom de guerre of one of the least known major al Qaeda figures.

Masri was an Egyptian, known as an explosives expert and a key figure in spreading Islamic militancy to Europe by bringing young Muslims with Western backgrounds to Pakistan for training, said M.J. Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London. "The terror trail keeps leading back to Pakistan, and Masri was an essential part of al Qaeda's headquarters in that country."

The U.S. official confirmed that Masri was suspected in the plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic Ocean. The Washington Post said in 2006 he was believed to be al Qaeda's conduit to British-Pakistani cells that carried out the July 7, 2005 subway and bus bombings in London that killed 56 people.

"He was someone ... who had ties to operations outside of the South Asia region. Al Qaeda lost something when this man died," the U.S. official said, noting, however, that the organization does have a "regenerative capability."

Brookings Institution terrorism analyst Daniel Benjamin said, "If there is any one lesson from the last few years, al Qaeda doesn't have a shortage of operational planners."