Abu Ubaidah al-Masri

Abu Ubaida al-Masri () (died December 2007) was an al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan. Al-Masri has been implicated in the 2006 Transatlantic Aircraft Plot, which was to be carried out by a terrorist cell operating in London, but which was orchestrated by al-Qaeda's central leadership.

Al-Masri is Egyptian (the epithet literally means 'the Egyptian') but he received combat experience, and terrorist and insurgent training in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.

Until recently al-Masri was thought to be a provincial al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, but according to The New York Times, " emerged as one of Al Qaeda's senior operatives after the death of Abu Hamza Rabia, another Egyptian who was killed by a missile strike in Pakistan in 2005."

The information about al-Masri's ascendency through the al-Qaeda leadership allegedly came from interrogations of al-Qaeda operatives captured in Pakistan. Al-Masri is suspected of helping recruit and train operatives who carried out the 7 July 2005 London Bombings. According to American intelligence officials, he is also suspected of involvement in the foiled plan to blow up airliners over the Atlantic Ocean in 2006.

Al-Masri lived in Germany before going to Afghanistan to join the Mujahadeen. After Afghanistan, he returned to Germany to begin building a network in Europe.

In 2006, two attempts were made by coalition forces to kill him.

Reports of death

According to U.S. government counterterrorism sources,...
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