'Pak-based British militant may have worked for UK police'

Abdul Jabbar, said to be from the Manchester area, was part of a group of between 10 and 20 Islamist extremists linked to recent intelligence warnings about Mumbai-style attacks in Britain, France and Germany, 'The Sunday Times' reported. The group is based at militant camps in the tribal areas of North Waziristan in Pakistan.

Community support officers - so-called 'plastic policemen' - have fewer powers than ordinary officers, but they have access to police databases that could be invaluable to extremists planning an attack.

Security officials said Jabbar was "a rising star" of al-Qaeda. But they have played down suggestions that any formal British branch of al-Qaeda had been set up or that Jabbar was directly linked to any plan to attack European public places.

Three years ago it emerged that up to eight police officers and civilians were on a secret list of alleged radicals said to be working in the Metropolitan police and other forces. 

Some were thought to have attended training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the report, the list was drawn up amid fears that individuals linked to Islamic extremism were taking advantage of police attempts to increase staff from ethnic minorities.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester police declined to comment on suggestions that a terror suspect had previously worked there as a community support officer.

"Everything is being handled by the security service," he said. A counter-terrorism official said it was a policy of Mi5 -- Britain's internal intelligence service -- never to confirm or deny such claims.

The Manchester link has emerged as part of an Mi5 investigation into a web of terrorists planning attacks in Europe.

The network is believed to be led by al-Qaeda commander called Ilyas Kashmiri, a one-eyed Pakistani who has reportedly boasted that he had sent cells to attack Britain and Germany.
Intelligence officials disclosed ten days ago that they had received "credible but non-specific" information that simultaneous commando attacks were planned in European cities.

Extremists were thought to be organising an assault similar to the Mumbai attack in 2008 when 10 Pakistani terrorists armed with machine guns and grenades killed 166 people.
In response, the CIA had stepped up its drone attacks on suspected militants in remote camps in Waziristan.

Attention has focussed on Jabbar, the British militant who is said to have been killed in a drone attack last month. He is thought to have been an associate of Kashmiri.

According to the report, electronic eavesdroppers had heard Jabbar, his brother and a group of eight German suspects discuss plans to obtain guns and explosives in phone calls to Britain and Germany.

Their "campfire chatter" was apparently intercepted by GCHQ, the Government listening centre in Cheltenham.

Counter-terrorism officials said Jabbar, who is married and in his late 30s, attended a meeting of militants in May at which he spoke about setting up an "Islamic Army of Great Britain".

Other sources claimed that Jabbar, who had been living with his wife in Pakistan for at least a year, may have previously attended a mosque in the Manchester area.

There is no indication whether he was the militant who had worked there as a community support officer.