Ilyas Kashmiri had convened a meeting of militant leaders to discuss hitting foreign embassies and also trying to poison Nato food supplies en route to Afghanistan to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden. …

Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s interior minister, said he could confirm “100 per cent”, that Kashmiri had died when a Predator drone fired three missiles into a house in South Waziristan as he and associates drank tea in the garden.

However, US officials have been unable to confirm the death.