Pakistanis kill NYC-plot suspect
Al-Qaida operative indicted in conspiracy to bomb subway
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani soldiers killed a top al-Qaida operative Saturday who was indicted in the U.S. on accusations of being involved in a plot to bomb New York’s subway system, the military said in a statement.
The death of Adnan Shukrijumah is the latest blow to the terror organization still reeling from the 2011 killing of leader Osama bin Laden and now largely eclipsed by the militant Islamic State group. It also marks a major achievement for the Pakistani military, which mounted a widespread operation in the northwest this summer.
The military announced Shukrijumah’s death in a statement, saying he was killed along with two other suspected militants in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal area early Saturday. South Waziristan is part of the mountainous territory bordering Afghanistan that is home to various militant groups fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“The al-Qaida leader, who was killed by the Pakistan army in a successful operation, is the same person who had been indicted in the United States,” said a senior Pakistani army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to journalists.
As al-Qaida’s head of external operations, Shukrijumah occupied a position once held by Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The FBI lists Shukrijumah, a Saudi, as a “most wanted” terrorist and the U.S. State Department had offered up to $5 million as a reward for his capture.
He also was accused of plotting to blow up a shopping center in Manchester, England.
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. allege Shukrijumah had recruited three men in 2008 to receive training in the lawless tribal region of Pakistan for the subway attack. The three traveled to Pakistan to avenge the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan but were persuaded by al-Qaida operatives to return to the United States for a suicide-bombing mission against a major target such as the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square or Grand Central Terminal.
Eventually, the men settled on a plot to blow themselves up at rush hour, according to testimony in federal court. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that New York plot one of the most dangerous since 9/11.
Adis Medunjanin, originally from Bosnia, was sentenced to life in prison in November 2012 for his role in the foiled 2009 plot. Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay cooperated with the government in the hopes of getting a reduced sentence.
After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Shukrijumah was seen as one of al-Qaida’s best chances to attack inside the U.S. or Europe, captured terrorist Abu Zubaydah told U.S. authorities. Shukrijumah studied computer science and chemistry at a community college in Florida and is thought to be the only al-Qaida leader to have once held a U.S. green card. He lived in Miramar, Fla., with his mother and five siblings.
He had gone to South Florida in 1995 when his father, a Muslim cleric and missionary trained in Saudi Arabia, decided to take a post at a Florida mosque.
At some point in the late 1990s, the FBI says Shukrijumah became convinced that he must participate in “jihad,” or holy war, to fight perceived persecution against Muslims in places like Chechnya and Bosnia. He eventually went to a training camp in Afghanistan.
When the FBI showed up to arrest him as a material witness to a terrorism case in 2003, he had already left the country.
In 2004, John Ashcroft, attorney general at the time, called Shukrijumah a “clear and present danger” to the United States. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. on the news of Shukrijumah’s death.
Shukrijumah, also known as Jaffar Tayar, was fluent in English, Arabic and Pashto, a language he had picked up while hiding in Waziristan.
The Pakistani military said Shukrijumah had recently moved from the North Waziristan tribal area to South Waziristan to avoid a military operation the Pakistanis started in June in North Waziristan.
The military said in a statement that the operation to capture Shukrijumah began late Friday when helicopter gunships swooped in on a compound in the village of Shin Warsak, about 5 miles west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
The attack touched off a gunbattle that continued into Saturday, said a senior military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
South Waziristan is a major target of the U.S. drone campaign in Pakistan, which started in June 2004 with a missile strike on a target close to the village where Shukrijumah was killed.
Pakistan’s army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, said on Twitter that five “terrorists” also were detained in the raid.
The United States has been pushing Pakistan for years to mount an operation in North Waziristan, the last area of the tribal region bordering Afghanistan where the Pakistani military had not forcefully moved to root out militants. The military says its forces have killed 1,200 militants in the North Waziristan operation and cleared 90 percent of the territory.
Information for this article was contributed by Munir Ahmed and Rebecca Santana of The Associated Press and by Ismail Khan and Salman Masood of The New York Times.