Pakistan arrests French al-Qaeda suspect

“He was trying to flee the country and was heading to Somalia,” said the official.

Pakistani intelligence agents are currently questioning the 41-year-old, who is of Algerian descent, and say he will eventually be deported to France.

Meziche has been known to counter-terrorism officials for at least a decade. He belonged to the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell that the US says masterminded the 9/11 attacks.

He reportedly recruited jihadists at a notorious mosque in the northern German city, which authorities closed in 2010 because of its role in spreading fanaticism.

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.

Meziche is believed to have travelled to northern Pakistan in early 2009 with 10 other recruits from Germany.

Details of the plot against European targets emerged a year later, when a member of the cell, Ahmed Sidiqi, was captured by coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The attacks were believed to be part of a plan to force the release of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who goes on trial later this year for his alleged role as 9/11 mastermind.

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