WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - Senior al Qaeda planner Obaidah al Masri, believed to be a key figure in the 2005 London subway and bus bombings and a foiled 2006 plot to blow up commercial airliners, is thought to have died, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

"The sense is that he is dead," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. McClatchy newspapers reported that Masri died of hepatitis in Pakistan. The official declined to discuss the circumstances but acknowledged that Masri appeared to have died of natural causes. (Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, editing by Jackie Frank)

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