Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed In Pakistani Raid, Say Reports
The Army of Pakistan claims that it’s killed al Qaeda leader Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation has indicted for a role in at least one terror plot to attack the United States and the United Kingdom. Shukrijumah, 39, was born in Saudi Arabia and moved to the United States, with his parents, as a teenager where he remained into adulthood. His late father was an imam in both New York, and then Florida, while his mother still lives in Florida.
The alleged al Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan was shot during a raid in South Waziristan on Sunday, CNN reports, and was considered a senior commander in the terror group with an FBI reward of $5 million on his head. His indictment in New York was given in 2010 after water boarding led detainees at Guantanamo to identify him as the head of al Qaeda operations for North America, and one of the principal planners of the failed operation to bomb the NYC subway.
“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.”
A senior Pakistani army officer spoke to the Associated Press, as reported in the Huffington Post, largely mirroring the official statement given by the Pakistani government to Reuters and other sources. The raid was said to be part of a “mop up” to clean out the last of the Taliban’s insurgents in the area, the military having rooted most of them out in raids starting in mid-June. That operation began as a counter to insurgents making an attack on the busiest airport in Pakistan, Karachi.
The raid in which the al Qaeda leader was killed involved heavy machinery, helicopter gunships, and foot soldiers hitting the neighborhood in which the al Qaeda leader was holed up with other terror suspects and facilitators, the Pakistani government said. He had been there for at least two months, say neighbors.
Initially, the army believed the house contained an Arab man of unknown origin and several Chinese hostages, so the raid was planned accordingly, but, the Reuters interview revealed that the Army of Pakistan learned that it was Shukarijumah, and changed their plans to include “thousands” of soldiers. One Pakistani soldier died while another was critically injured in the operation.
Shukrijuman had fled to South Waziristan, where the al Qaeda leader was killed, after raids in the north, Al Jazeera reports. The death of the al Qaeda leader continues to throw the terror group into throes as it loses global relevancy.
