Military Kills Wanted Al Qaeda Leader In Pakistan
Top Al-Qaeda commander Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, carrying a US bounty of $5 million on his head for plotting attacks on the US and UK, ...
http://www.africaeagle.com/2014/12/military-kills-top-al-qaeda-leader.html
Top Al-Qaeda commander Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, carrying a US bounty of $5 million on his head for plotting attacks on the US and UK, was killed while a soldier was martyred in a military operation in South Waziristan Agency early Saturday morning.
In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of Pakistan Army, said that in an intelligence-borne operation, top Al-Qaeda commander Adnan El Shukrijumah was killed by the forces in a raid in Shinwarsak, South Wazirastan. In addition, five other terrorists were nabbed.
Shukrijumah, born on August 4, 1975, in Saudi Arabia, was forced to move to South Waziristan recently from North Waziristan Agency due to the operation Zarb-e-Azb, and was hiding in a local compound.
A huge quantity of arms and ammunition was also recovered from the compound. His accomplice and a local facilitator were also killed in the raid. Shukrijumah was a member of the Al-Qaeda core leadership and in charge of its all external operations.
A soldier, identified as Havaldar Masood, also embraced Shahadat during the early morning operation.
The ISPR said Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif appreciated the raiding team for the successful operation, saying the army would chase and eliminate all terrorists.
Tribal sources said Adnan Shukrijumah was known for being able to speak Arabic and English. He could also fluently speak Pashto and had command over Waziri and Mehsud pronunciation of Pashto, Urdu and Dari.
Agencies add: Pakistani helicopter gunships swooped on the militant hideout and shot dead Shukrijumah.
In Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, all phone lines and mobile phone signals were shut down overnight and the roads were blocked, a Reuters reporter there said. Residents awoke just before dawn to the thudding of helicopter gunships and the growl of convoys of military vehicles approaching from several directions. They were heading to a small house on a main road less than five kilometres from the main market on the outskirts of the town, a witness said. Residents say the neighbourhood is known to be sympathetic to the Taliban and the house had been used to shelter Afghan Taliban fighters for years.
One military official said security forces first heard that Chinese hostages were held at that location and then learned about Shukrijumah’s presence and planned a large operation, the officer said. Two intelligence officers said the militants opened fire on the Pakistani military and Shukrijumah, who one described as “an Arab national”, was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
A military official said five other militants were taken into custody during the raid, but intelligence officials said they were Shukrijumah’s wife and four children.
Military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a tweet that five “terrorists” were also arrested during the raid. “The intelligence had been working on the whereabouts and movements of Shukrijumah for about five to six years,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.
“Two Pakistani helicopters as well as four drones had been flying very low in the area since early morning and then gunfire continued for several hours,” a tribesman in the neighbouring Azam Warsak village told AFP. It was not immediately clear if the drones were part of the US’s covert drone programme, which usually target Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
He said that there were also reports of militants from the Haqqani network, which is aligned with the Afghan Taliban, in the area where the raid took place.
Analyst Imtiaz Gul said that the raid against Al-Qaeda reflected a shift in Pakistan’s military policy to go after every militant group. “It means Pakistan army is changing its position on Al-Qaeda, on how it views the militant groups,” Gul told AFP.
“This also shows that they are going for an indiscriminate action against (all militant groups) who are a source of destabilisation, not only in Pakistan but also in Afghanistan,” Gul said.
US investigators told CNN in 2010 that Shukrijumah is believed to have worked his way up into the leadership ranks of Osama bin Laden’s terror network after starting out as a dishwasher at an Al-Qaeda training camp. The FBI believes he then went to Pakistan’s Waziristan region, and ascended to his current position after two other Al-Qaeda operational leaders were killed in suspected US drone strikes.
Shukrijumah moved to America as a young child, living in the New York borough of Brooklyn, before moving with his family to Florida in the 1990s, according to FBI investigators. As an adult, he worked odd jobs and took classes at a local college, including an English course with a professor who remembered his former student when FBI agents came knocking years later.
Shukrijumah was wanted in the United States for conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Shukrijumah, 39, who it said was believed to be Al-Qaeda’s external operations chief at one time. Shukrijumah, a Saudi Arabian native with a Guyanese passport, is the most senior Al-Qaeda member ever killed by the Pakistani military.
“The charges reveal that the plot against New York City’s subway system, uncovered in September of 2009, was directed by senior Al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan,” the FBI website said.
The subway plot was described by prosecutors at the time as the most serious threat to New York since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Shukrijumah was also linked by US authorities to other suspects, including a group of men accused of planning to bomb fuel pipelines at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.
Source: The Nation
In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of Pakistan Army, said that in an intelligence-borne operation, top Al-Qaeda commander Adnan El Shukrijumah was killed by the forces in a raid in Shinwarsak, South Wazirastan. In addition, five other terrorists were nabbed.
Shukrijumah, born on August 4, 1975, in Saudi Arabia, was forced to move to South Waziristan recently from North Waziristan Agency due to the operation Zarb-e-Azb, and was hiding in a local compound.
A huge quantity of arms and ammunition was also recovered from the compound. His accomplice and a local facilitator were also killed in the raid. Shukrijumah was a member of the Al-Qaeda core leadership and in charge of its all external operations.
A soldier, identified as Havaldar Masood, also embraced Shahadat during the early morning operation.
The ISPR said Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif appreciated the raiding team for the successful operation, saying the army would chase and eliminate all terrorists.
Tribal sources said Adnan Shukrijumah was known for being able to speak Arabic and English. He could also fluently speak Pashto and had command over Waziri and Mehsud pronunciation of Pashto, Urdu and Dari.
Agencies add: Pakistani helicopter gunships swooped on the militant hideout and shot dead Shukrijumah.
In Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, all phone lines and mobile phone signals were shut down overnight and the roads were blocked, a Reuters reporter there said. Residents awoke just before dawn to the thudding of helicopter gunships and the growl of convoys of military vehicles approaching from several directions. They were heading to a small house on a main road less than five kilometres from the main market on the outskirts of the town, a witness said. Residents say the neighbourhood is known to be sympathetic to the Taliban and the house had been used to shelter Afghan Taliban fighters for years.
One military official said security forces first heard that Chinese hostages were held at that location and then learned about Shukrijumah’s presence and planned a large operation, the officer said. Two intelligence officers said the militants opened fire on the Pakistani military and Shukrijumah, who one described as “an Arab national”, was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
A military official said five other militants were taken into custody during the raid, but intelligence officials said they were Shukrijumah’s wife and four children.
Military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a tweet that five “terrorists” were also arrested during the raid. “The intelligence had been working on the whereabouts and movements of Shukrijumah for about five to six years,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.
“Two Pakistani helicopters as well as four drones had been flying very low in the area since early morning and then gunfire continued for several hours,” a tribesman in the neighbouring Azam Warsak village told AFP. It was not immediately clear if the drones were part of the US’s covert drone programme, which usually target Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
He said that there were also reports of militants from the Haqqani network, which is aligned with the Afghan Taliban, in the area where the raid took place.
Analyst Imtiaz Gul said that the raid against Al-Qaeda reflected a shift in Pakistan’s military policy to go after every militant group. “It means Pakistan army is changing its position on Al-Qaeda, on how it views the militant groups,” Gul told AFP.
“This also shows that they are going for an indiscriminate action against (all militant groups) who are a source of destabilisation, not only in Pakistan but also in Afghanistan,” Gul said.
US investigators told CNN in 2010 that Shukrijumah is believed to have worked his way up into the leadership ranks of Osama bin Laden’s terror network after starting out as a dishwasher at an Al-Qaeda training camp. The FBI believes he then went to Pakistan’s Waziristan region, and ascended to his current position after two other Al-Qaeda operational leaders were killed in suspected US drone strikes.
Shukrijumah moved to America as a young child, living in the New York borough of Brooklyn, before moving with his family to Florida in the 1990s, according to FBI investigators. As an adult, he worked odd jobs and took classes at a local college, including an English course with a professor who remembered his former student when FBI agents came knocking years later.
Shukrijumah was wanted in the United States for conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Shukrijumah, 39, who it said was believed to be Al-Qaeda’s external operations chief at one time. Shukrijumah, a Saudi Arabian native with a Guyanese passport, is the most senior Al-Qaeda member ever killed by the Pakistani military.
“The charges reveal that the plot against New York City’s subway system, uncovered in September of 2009, was directed by senior Al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan,” the FBI website said.
The subway plot was described by prosecutors at the time as the most serious threat to New York since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Shukrijumah was also linked by US authorities to other suspects, including a group of men accused of planning to bomb fuel pipelines at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.
Source: The Nation
