Abu Ubaidah al Masri

Abu Ubaidah al-Masri (Arabic: ابو عبيده المصري‎‎) (died December 2007) was an al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan. Al-Masri was implicated in the 2006 Transatlantic Aircraft Plot, which was to be carried out by a terrorist cell operating in London, but which was orchestrated by al-Qaeda's central leadership.

Al-Masri was Egyptian (the epithet literally means 'the Egyptian') but he received combat experience, and terrorist and insurgent training in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.

Al-Masri was thought to be a provincial al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, but according to The New York Times, "[al-Masri] emerged as one of Al Qaeda's senior operatives after the death of Abu Hamza Rabia, another Egyptian who was killed by a missile strike in Pakistan in 2005."

The information about al-Masri's ascendency through the al-Qaeda leadership allegedly came from interrogations of al-Qaeda operatives captured in Pakistan. Al-Masri was suspected of helping recruit and train operatives who carried out the 7 July 2005 London Bombings. According to American intelligence officials, he was also suspected of involvement in the foiled plan to blow up airliners over the Atlantic Ocean in 2006.

Al-Masri lived in Germany before going to Afghanistan to join the Mujahadeen. After Afghanistan, he returned to Germany to begin building a network in Europe.

In 2006, two attempts were made by coalition forces to kill him.