(Jihadis in Pakistan)
Via Deutsche Welle:
A US missile strike is thought to have killed a number of German nationals in Pakistan's tribal region. Estimates place the number of Germans killed at five.
In the North Waziristan region of Pakistan, a rocket attack from an American drone aircraft left eight suspected Islamist militants dead on Monday evening. Reports from Pakistani officials indicate five of those killed were German, possibly with Turkish backgrounds.
The strike took place in a village called Mir Ali, near North Warziristan's main town in the tumultuous region that borders Afghanistan. The area is known as a hideout for militants linked to the Taliban and al Queda, and the militants killed were reportedly members of a group called Jihad Islami.
There has been no official confirmation from the German government regarding any German citizens killed in the strike.(more)
ABC News reports that the Germans were Afghans and Turks (h/t Hot Air). Pakistan's Ambassador Husain Haqqani told ABC News that the plot's leaders had been identified and targeted.
The plot was hatched in the Hamburg 9/11 mosque. As it turns out, the mosque's imam was accused of financing 9/11.
Meanwhile, French police arrested 12 suspected al-Qaeda members.
U.S. authorities say they have tracked one of the suspected German terror cells to the German city of Hamburg.
One suspect now in custody worked as a cleaner at the Hamburg airport, and others still being sought attended the same mosque in Hamburg where the 9/11 hijackers gathered.
To the amazement of US officials, it turns out the leader, the imam, of the mosque is the same man accused by the U.S. nine years ago of helping finance the 9/11 plot, Mamoun Darkazanli.
"The mosque went back to being a very radical place where people are recruited for attacks where attacks are discussed," said former White House national security official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant, "and German intelligence apparently stopped looking closely at the mosque where a lot of 9/11 was planned."
Update: Picture is not of German Jihadis.
