Nawaf al-Hazmi

Nawaf al-Hazmi
نواف الحازمي
Passport photo, January 2000
Born	(1976-08-09)August 9, 1976[1] Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Died	September 11, 2001(2001-09-11) (aged 25) The Pentagon, Virginia, U.S.
Cause of death	Suicide by plane crash (September 11 attacks)
Nationality	Saudi
Relatives	Salem al-Hazmi (brother)

Nawaf Muhammad Salim al-Hazmi (Arabic: نواف محمد سالم الحازمي, romanized: Nawāf Muḥammad Sālim al-Ḥāzmī; 9 August 1976 – 11 September 2001)^[2] was a Saudi terrorist hijacker who was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which they crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks.

Al-Hazmi and a long-time friend, Khalid al-Mihdhar, left their homes in Saudi Arabia in 1995 to fight for Muslims in the Bosnian War. Al-Hazmi later traveled to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against the Afghan Northern Alliance. He returned to Saudi Arabia in early 1999.

Already long-time affiliates of al-Qaeda with extensive fighting experience, al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar were chosen by Osama bin Laden for an ambitious terrorist plot to pilot commercial airliners into designated targets in the United States. Al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar both obtained US tourist visas in April 1999. Al-Hazmi trained in an al-Qaeda training camp in the fall of 1999 and traveled to Malaysia for the 2000 Al-Qaeda Summit.

Al-Hazmi arrived in Los Angeles, California, from Bangkok, Thailand, on 15 January 2000, alongside al-Mihdhar. The two settled in San Diego, staying at the Parkwood Apartments until May 2000. While in San Diego, they attended its mosque, led by Anwar al-Awlaki. The two took flying lessons in San Diego, but due to their poor English skills they did not perform well during their flight lessons and their flight instructor regarded them as suspicious.

Al-Mihdhar left al-Hazmi in California for Yemen in June 2000. Al-Hazmi stayed in California until he met up with Hani Hanjour in December 2000, and they both traveled to Phoenix, Arizona. They later moved to Falls Church, Virginia, in April 2001, where the rest of the hijackers began to join them. Al-Hazmi met frequently with Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the attacks, during the summer of 2001.

The CIA reportedly received al-Hazmi's name on a list of 19 persons suspected of planning an attack in the near future. Al-Hazmi was one of the four names on the list who were known for certain. A search for al-Hazmi and other suspected terrorists commenced, but they were not located until after the attacks.

The day before the September 11 attacks, al-Hazmi, al-Mihdhar, and Hanjour checked into a hotel in Herndon, Virginia. The next morning, al-Hazmi and four other terrorists, including al-Hazmi's younger brother, Salem al-Hazmi, boarded American Airlines Flight 77 at Dulles International Airport and hijacked the plane so that Hanjour could pilot and crash the plane into the Pentagon as part of the 11 September attacks. The crash killed all 64 passengers aboard the aircraft and 125 in the Pentagon. Following the attacks, al-Hazmi's participation was initially dismissed as that of a "muscle hijacker", but he was later revealed to have played a larger role in the operational planning than previously believed.^[3]