One of al-Qaeda’s most senior leaders who had been implicated in plots to blow up the London Underground and the New York metro has been killed during a raid on his hideout in Pakistan.
Adnan Shukrijumah, the terror group's chief of global operations, died along with two other suspected terrorists in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal area early on Saturday, the country’s military said.
Shukrijumah was found hiding in a compound following an army operation to hunt him down. A New York court has accused Shukrijumah, who lived in the US for 15 years, of being the mastermind behind a series of plots against the West, including plans to blow up the London Underground and trains in new York and Norway.
Shukrijumah took on the role in al-Qaeda that was previously held by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks on the twin Towers and who was captured in 2003.
Federal prosecutors in the US allege Shukrijumah recruited three men in 2008 to receive training in the lawless tribal region of Pakistan for carrying out attacks on subway systems.