Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, currently in U.S. custody for alleged acts of terrorism, is responsible for the death of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, CNN reported, citing a report released by the Pentagon.

Mohammed, who was captured by the U.S. in 2003, personally beheaded the reporter, according to the article.

While Mohammed had previously stated the same in a report released in 2007, the latest report removes all doubts regarding the killing.

He had stated that there were 'pictures of me on the internet holding his head'.

The Wall Street Journal reporter was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 by an insurgent group who called themselves The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.

The group sent a list of demands to the U.S. Government in exchange for his release. Later, a video of his time in captivity as well as the beheading was released. It was found that Pearl had been beheaded 9 days after he was captured, though it took several months for the parts of his body, which were buried in a shallow grave near Karachi, to be found.

Three men were arrested in connection to the beheading but in 2007, Mohammed claimed responsibility for the capture and murder of Pearl.

CNN stated that at least three different militant groups were involved in the crime, including kidnappers led by British-Pakistani Omar Sheikh and a team led by Mohammed, according to the report.

KHALID MOHAMMED

Mohammed is considered to be the brains behind the World Trade Center attacks.

The full 9/11 report released by the Pentagon in April 2010 said that Mohammad was a fellow plotter of Ramzi Yousef, who is responsible for the Manila air plot.

Highly educated and equally comfortable in a government office or a terrorist safehouse, KSM applied his imagination, technical aptitude, and managerial skills to hatching and planning an extraordinary array of terrorist schemes, the report stated.

However, he largely remained under the radar of the U.S. Government until the 9/11 attacks.

He is currently under trial for almost 3,000 acts of murder and terrorism in the U.S. But the U.S. government has not charged him with the murder of Pearl.

Al-Qaeda