Top al-Qaeda leader shot dead by Pakistani military

Wana: Pakistani helicopter gunships swooped on a militant hideout in a predawn raid on Saturday and shot dead a top al-Qaeda operative who was wanted in the United States for planning to bomb the New York subway system, the military said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Saudi national Adnan el-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.

"In an intelligence borne operation, top al-Qaeda leader Adnan el Shukrijumah was killed by (the) Pakistan Army in an early morning raid in Shinwarsak, South Waziristan today," the military statement said. The remote region borders Afghanistan.

"His accomplice and local facilitator were also killed in the raid," the statement said.

The military said that Shukrijumah had recently been forced to move by a Pakistani military operation in neighbouring North Waziristan.

The region 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.

PREDAWN RAID

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 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 presenceand 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 gun battle. One soldier was killed and another wounded, the military said.

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.

Shukrijumah is wanted in the United States for conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country.

"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 described 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.