A senior Pakistani security source told BBC's Newsnight programme that Abdul Jabbar was a British citizen who has a British wife and was living in Punjab, Pakistan.

According to the source, Jabbar was living in Punjab, and was chosen as the leader of a new group, to be called The Islamic Army of Great Britain.

The decision was apparently made during a meeting in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan three months ago, attended by 300 militants and monitored by intelligence agencies.

The source said the new group was set up to organise synchronised terrorist attacks in the UK, France and Germany. It was this intelligence that led to the missile strike by a US unmanned aerial drone on September 8 which killed Jabbar and three others.