Reports: European Terror Plot Uncovered

(Sept. 29) -- Intelligence agencies have uncovered a sophisticated al-Qaida plot to kidnap and murder tourists at landmarks across Europe, allegedly modeled after the 2008 Mumbai siege that left nearly 200 people dead in hotels, cafes and a train station in India.

The plot has been thwarted by the CIA, which launched a recent barrage of drone strikes against Pakistani militants in the mountainous border region with Afghanistan, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Fox News.

So far European security officials haven't raised their national terror warning levels. The Eiffel Tower was briefly evacuated late Tuesday after someone called in a bomb threat from a telephone booth. Nothing was found, but it was the second such threat there in two weeks.

The plan by al-Qaida and possibly Taliban organizers was in an "advanced but not imminent stage," and suspects had been under surveillance by Western spy agencies "for some time," Sky News reported. Several of them were killed in the drone attacks, it said.

An unidentified British official told The Associated Press the plot had an "Islamist connection" but wouldn't confirm it was "al-Qaida inspired."

Meanwhile, a German counterterrorism official told CNN that a German citizen of Afghan descent, Ahmed Sidiqi, is the source of intelligence on the plot. Sidiqi was detained in Kabul in July and transferred to U.S. custody, where he "revealed details about the terror plot," the official said. Sidiqi used to attend the same mosque in Hamburg where al-Qaida militants met to plan the Sept. 11 attacks, the official said.

And in Spain, a U.S. citizen of Algerian descent has been arrested on suspicion of fundraising for al-Qaida's North African branch, police told Reuters today. It's unclear whether his arrest is connected at all to the larger European plot.

The CIA has launched a record number of more than 20 drone strikes in Pakistan so far this month to thwart the plot, The Wall Street Journal reported. American officials are also looking into whether the planned attacks in Europe might have extended to targets inside the U.S. as well, it said. But another U.S. official told NBC News that no U.S. link has been discovered.

Four people were killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's South Waziristan region on Tuesday, but it's unclear whether they were connected to the alleged plot.

Without referring to the latest plot, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate hearing last week that "increased activity" by militant groups signals a heightened threat to Western targets.

"We are all seeing increased activity by a more diverse set of groups and a more diverse set of threats," Napolitano said, according to Al-Jazeera. The growing threat is "directed at the West generally," she said.