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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