A French militant, described as an al Qaeda leader linked to the 9/11 attacks, has been captured in Pakistan, experts and a Pakistani official said on Wednesday. Naamen Meziche was detained after disclosures by Younis al-Mauritani, apparently tasked by Osama bin Laden to plot attacks on Australia, Europe and the US and captured in Pakistan last year, the Pakistani security official told AFP. A Western terror expert said Meziche was arrested in late May in Quetta, as he was travelling to the Tribal Areas. Pakistani agents carried out the operation alone at a time when the government is under huge US pressure to do more to eliminate the threat from al Qaeda and other militants sheltering in Pakistan. Born in 1970 and of Algerian descent, security sources say Meziche is an “important” al Qaeda figure in Europe who was linked to the 9/11 attacks as a member of the Hamburg cell that the US says masterminded the 2001 hijackings. He reportedly recruited jihadists at a notorious mosque in the northern German city, which authorities closed in 2010 for breeding fanatics. Three of the 9/11 hijackers, including their ringleader Mohammed Atta, who piloted the first plane into New York’s World Trade Center, met regularly at the mosque before moving to the United States. The Western expert said French intelligence had known for several years that Meziche had been in the border areas between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The expert said the Frenchman was in repeated contact with the Hamburg cell, linked to 9/11 and wanted — through his association with Mauritani — over terror threats in Europe. Neither Meziche nor Mauritani feature on the US list of most wanted terrorists.
