Adnan el Shukrijumah: Al-Qaeda senior leader killed in Pakistan

Top al-Qaeda commander Adnan el Shukrijumah, who was accused of planning to bomb trains in New York and London, has been killed in Pakistan, the country’s military says.

Adnan el Shukrijumah was killed in a raid in north-western Pakistan, near the Afghan border, the military said.

The FBI describes him as al-Qaeda’s global operations chief, a post once held by the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Adnan el Shukrijumah was born in Saudi Arabia and lived for several years in the US.

He was named in a US federal indictment as a conspirator in the case against three men accused of plotting suicide bomb attacks on New York’s subway system in 2009.

Adnan el Shukrijumah is also suspected of having played a role in plotting al-Qaeda attacks in Panama, Norway and the UK.

Pakistan’s military said two other militants were killed in the raid on December 6. One soldier was also reportedly killed, and another was hurt.

A military statement said the “intelligence-borne operation” took place in the Shinwarsak region of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.

The region is a base for the Pakistani Taliban and its allies.

Pakistan’s military launched an offensive in June against militants in neighboring North Waziristan.

Adnan el Shukrijumah is alleged to have been in charge of planning al-Qaeda attacks outside Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A Saudi national, he spent more than 15 years in the US, moving there when his father took up a post at a Brooklyn mosque. The family later moved to Florida.

In the late 1990s, Adnan el Shukrijumah is thought to have left for militant training camps in Afghanistan.