Nawaf Al-Hazmi

Nawaf Al-Hazmi

Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi (Arabic: نواف الحازمي‎, Nawāf al-Ḥāzmī; also known as Rabia al-Makki) (August 9, 1976 – September 11, 2001) was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks.

A Saudi, Nawaf and childhood friend, Khalid al-Mihdhar, left their homes in 1995 to fight in the Bosnian War. Hazmi later traveled to Afghanistan to fight among the Taliban against the Afghan Northern Alliance. After fighting in Chechnya in 1998, he returned to Saudi Arabia in early 1999.

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

Nawaf arrived in the United States from Bangkok, Thailand, on January 15, 2000, with Khalid al-Mihdhar in Los Angeles. The two stayed at Parkwood Apartments in San Diego until May 2000. The two took flying lessons during that month in San Diego. Due to Hazmi and Mihdhar's poor English skills, they did not perform well during their flight lessons and were regarded as suspicious by their flight instructor.

Mihdhar left Hazmi in California for Yemen in June 2000. 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 2001 where the rest of the muscle hijackers began to join them. Hazmi met frequently with Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the attacks, during the summer of 2001.

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

On September 10, 2001, Hazmi along with Mihdhar and Hanjour checked into a hotel in Herndon, Virginia. The next morning, Nawaf al-Hazmi, along with four other terrorists, boarded American Airlines Flight 77 and hijacked the plane so that Hani Hanjour could pilot and crash the plane into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks. The crash killed all 64 passengers aboard the aircraft and 125 in the Pentagon. Hazmi was initially dismissed as a "muscle hijacker" following the attacks, but was later revealed to have played a larger role in the operational planning than previously believed. His younger brother, Salem al-Hazmi, was another hijacker aboard the same flight.