Pakistani army says it killed a leader of al-Qaida

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A Saudi-American accused of plotting to bomb the New York City subway system was killed in a pre-dawn army attack on a remote al-Qaida militant hideout, Pakistani officials said yesterday.

Helicopter gunships targeted Adnan el Shukrijumah in the lawless region of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

Shukrijumah had moved there recently after escaping another Pakistani military operation in the neighboring North Waziristan region, the officials said. Two of his men also were killed in the attack, officials said.

The military said that, in an operation based on intelligence information, “top al-Qaida leader Adnan el Shukrijumah was killed by the Pakistan Army in an early morning raid in Shinwarsak, South Waziristan, today.”

“His accomplice and local facilitator were also killed in the raid,” the statement added.

One Pakistani soldier was killed in the operation, it said.

Shukrijumah, a member of al-Qaida’s leadership, was thought to be in charge of all of the terror network’s external operations. The Saudi-born Shukrijumah, who was in his late 30s, would be the highest ranking al-Qaida member to be killed by the Pakistani military.

The FBI launched a global manhunt for Shukrijumah in 2003, offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. U.S. officials at the time described him as an “imminent threat to U.S. citizens and interests,” adding that he might be as significant an organizer of terrorist acts as Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 attack.

Shukrijumah was identified as a key al-Qaida operative by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, its senior planner.

Shukrijumah was a naturalized U.S. citizen who lived in New York and south Florida and fled the United States after 9/11. According to U.S. officials, he might have traveled using passports from Guyana, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad or Canada. He spoke fluent English with little accent and was able to blend into Western cultures easily.

Shukrijumah trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan before 9/11, according to U.S. officials. He also met with Jose Padilla, an American initially accused of planning to detonate a radiological bomb in the U.S. who later was convicted of conspiracy charges involving terrorism abroad.

In 2010, Shukrijumah was charged with participating in a failed plot to blow up the New York subway system the previous year. At the time, prosecutors described the plot as the most significant threat to New York since 9/11.