'Missile kills UK terror suspect'

Rashid Rauf, who is originally from Birmingham, was said to have been killed along with at least four other militants with links to al Qaida, according to reports on Pakistani television stations.

Scotland Yard refused to discuss whether Rauf was wanted in connection with an alleged plot to bring down up to 10 transatlantic passenger jets.

A Foreign Office spokesman was unable to confirm that a British national had been killed in the incident, which happened before dawn in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan.

"We are currently investigating this at the moment, but we do not have any information," the spokesman said.

Reports in Pakistan suggested that Rauf - who escaped from custody outside an Islamabad court last December - was killed by an attack involving a pilot-less drone aircraft.

Rauf, who is thought to be aged in his mid-20s and to hold both British and Pakistani citizenship, is wanted by West Midlands Police over the 2002 murder of his uncle.

Earlier this year, the West Midlands force confirmed that it was liaising with both the Home Office and the Foreign Office in respect of his extradition.

Rauf, from Ward End, Birmingham, left Britain shortly after his uncle, 54-year-old Mohammed Saeed, was stabbed to death in April 2002. He is then thought to have been radicalised by an extremist Islamic sect.

Rauf's family had little comment to make at their terraced home opposite a park in the Ward End area of Birmingham. A man, believed to be a relative of the alleged terrorist, ordered the media to leave the driveway of his home or risk injury. "I am angry," he said. "For your own safety, all I can say to you is goodbye."