A former Broward College student who would become one of the most wanted men in the U.S. government's war on terror was reportedly killed in Pakistan Saturday morning during an attack orchestrated by that country's military.
Adnan el-Shukrijumah, 39 at the time of is death, was said to have been one of Al Qaeda's senior leaders. And the New York Times reports that the Pakistani military organized an effort specifically for his capture, sending in helicopter gunships into a tiny South Waziristan village where Shukrijumah and other Al Qaeda operatives were located. The gunships set off a gun battle that took two other lives -- an Afghan aide and a Pakistani soldier.
Shukrijumah was a naturalized American citizen born in Saudi Arabia. He came to the U.S. with his family in 1995, arriving in South Florida with his mother and siblings. His father had been living in Brooklyn for the previous nine years, working as an imam before eventually buying a house for his wife and kids in Miramar.
See also: Miami's Own Adnan Shukrijumah Becomes Osama's Lieutenant
Shukrijumah attended Broward College. He then began a globetrotting life, first selling Islamic in Trinidad and somewhere along the lines, got involved in the terrorism industry. He was an associate of Jose Padilla, the infamous "shoebomber," and also had associations with other suspected terrorists with Miami connections, Imran Mandhai, who plead guilty to conspiring to bomb power stations in 2006.
The feds first started going after Shukrijumah during the immediate years after 9-11, offering a $5 million reward for his capture. He was said to have been working for Al Qaeda and his knowledge of the country and culture made him especially dangerous, according to the feds
In 2010, he was formally charged with plotting an attack on New York City subway lines. In addition to those charges, the Justice Department said he was on a Al Queda panel that oversaw plots to attack Western countries.
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