Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed plot a large-scale attack in the Philippines, known as Operation Bojinka. The attack was planned with Abdul Hakim Murad, also Pakistani, and the Afghan financier, Wali Khan Amin Shah. It unfolded in three phases: 1) the assassination of the Pope on January 15, 1995, in a suicide attack; 2) the downing of 11 American airliners with nitroglycerin on January 21, 1995; and 3) a suicide attack with a plane piloted by Murad against the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. On January 6, 1995, a fire (possibly started by the police) hit the terrorists’ Manila apartment. They fled, pursued by the police, leaving behind their computers and the plans for the attacks. All were captured in the following months, except for Mohammed, who would later be among the organizers of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
