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       Pakistan Says Al-Qaida Leader Wanted for US Subway Plot Is Killed

   by VOA News

   Pakistani forces killed a top al-Qaida leader wanted in the United
   States for a 2009 plot to attack the New York subway system, the
   military said Saturday.

   Adnan Shukrijumah, a Saudi national, was killed early Saturday in a gun
   battle near South Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan. Two of
   his accomplices were also killed, the military said in a statement.

   Intelligence officials told Reuters that the militants opened fire on
   Pakistani military forces, who arrived in helicopters, and Shukrijumah
   was killed in the ensuing gun battle.

   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.

   A Pakistani soldier was killed and another wounded, the military said.

   U.S. prosecutors have alleged that Shukrijumah planned to use weapons
   of mass destruction to blow up the New York subway system.

   "The charges reveal that the plot against New York City's subway
   system, uncovered in September of 2009, was directed by senior al-Qaida
   leadership in Pakistan," according to a statement on the FBI website.

   At the time, the subway plot was described as the most serious threat
   to New York since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

   Shukrijumah was also linked by U.S. 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.

   South Waziristan was the Taliban's key stronghold in Pakistan and a
   hotbed of militancy until the military launched an offensive to retake
   the territory on June 15.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/pakistan-al-qaida-killed/2548387.html