An undated FBI photograph of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was reported killed.
The terrorist behind the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa – the attack that brought al-Qaida to global attention – has been killed in Somalia. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who had a $5m price tag put on his head by American authorities, was one of the most wanted Islamist militants in the world.
The embassy attacks – in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania – killed more than 200 people and injured several thousand. The majority of the casualties were local African staff or passersby caught in the multiple explosions that destroyed the buildings.
Mohammed also organised the 2002 attacks on two Israeli targets, including the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, which killed 13 people, and an attempt to shoot down a passenger plane on a flight to Israel.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who was on a visit to Tanzania as news of the death broke, described the killing as a "significant blow to al-Qaida, its extremist allies, and its operations in east Africa".
"It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere – Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis and our own embassy personnel," she said.
A senior American official in Washington said that his killing removed one of the group's "most experienced operational planners in east Africa and has almost certainly set back operations".
News of Mohammed's death comes just six weeks after the death of the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, in a US special forces raid in Pakistan. Last week Ilyas Kashmiri, another senior terrorist with ties to al-Qaida, was also reported to have been killed.
Kenyan police, who cited Somali officials, said Mohammed had been shot dead when he and an associate refused to stop at a checkpoint north-west of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, earlier this week. The dead man, thought to be aged 38, had a false passport and $40,000 in cash it was reported.
"We have confirmed he was killed by our police at a control checkpoint this week," Halima Aden, a senior national security officer in Somalia, told Reuters. "He had a fake South African passport and other documents. After thorough investigation, we confirmed it was him."
No independent confirmation of Mohammed's death was immediately available but the AFP news agency published images of the face of the dead man which resembled those previously published by American investigators. There was also some confusion over what had happened to Mohammed's remains, with reports saying they had been buried and others claiming they had been handed over to the American authorities.
Born in the Comoros Islands, off the coast of Mozambique, Mohammed was educated in Saudi Arabia before travelling to Afghanistan in the early 1990s. He is also thought to have been in Mogadishu in 1993 during fighting there. He narrowly escaped death in an American air strike in Somalia in 2007. American authorities have steadily tracked down almost all those responsible for the 1998 bombing attacks. Many were brought to trial in America in 2001.
The death of Mohammed will be a loss for al-Qaida in east Africa but is unlikely to have a significant impact on the overall capabilities of the hardline leadership element based in Pakistan. Like most regional branches of al-Qaida, even those violent Islamist extremists in east Africa who have sworn allegiance to Bin Laden have remained largely autonomous.
Various local factions have allied with al-Qaida, often for short-term pragmatic reasons, but few have built solid links. Mohammed was one of the few terrorists based in Africa who followed a genuinely global agenda and was willing to launch attacks on international targets.
The embassy attacks – in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania – killed more than 200 people and injured several thousand. The majority of the casualties were local African staff or passersby caught in the multiple explosions that destroyed the buildings.
Mohammed also organised the 2002 attacks on two Israeli targets, including the bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, which killed 13 people, and an attempt to shoot down a passenger plane on a flight to Israel.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who was on a visit to Tanzania as news of the death broke, described the killing as a "significant blow to al-Qaida, its extremist allies, and its operations in east Africa".
"It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere – Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis and our own embassy personnel," she said.
A senior American official in Washington said that his killing removed one of the group's "most experienced operational planners in east Africa and has almost certainly set back operations".
News of Mohammed's death comes just six weeks after the death of the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, in a US special forces raid in Pakistan. Last week Ilyas Kashmiri, another senior terrorist with ties to al-Qaida, was also reported to have been killed.
Kenyan police, who cited Somali officials, said Mohammed had been shot dead when he and an associate refused to stop at a checkpoint north-west of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, earlier this week. The dead man, thought to be aged 38, had a false passport and $40,000 in cash it was reported.
"We have confirmed he was killed by our police at a control checkpoint this week," Halima Aden, a senior national security officer in Somalia, told Reuters. "He had a fake South African passport and other documents. After thorough investigation, we confirmed it was him."
No independent confirmation of Mohammed's death was immediately available but the AFP news agency published images of the face of the dead man which resembled those previously published by American investigators. There was also some confusion over what had happened to Mohammed's remains, with reports saying they had been buried and others claiming they had been handed over to the American authorities.
Born in the Comoros Islands, off the coast of Mozambique, Mohammed was educated in Saudi Arabia before travelling to Afghanistan in the early 1990s. He is also thought to have been in Mogadishu in 1993 during fighting there. He narrowly escaped death in an American air strike in Somalia in 2007. American authorities have steadily tracked down almost all those responsible for the 1998 bombing attacks. Many were brought to trial in America in 2001.
The death of Mohammed will be a loss for al-Qaida in east Africa but is unlikely to have a significant impact on the overall capabilities of the hardline leadership element based in Pakistan. Like most regional branches of al-Qaida, even those violent Islamist extremists in east Africa who have sworn allegiance to Bin Laden have remained largely autonomous.
Various local factions have allied with al-Qaida, often for short-term pragmatic reasons, but few have built solid links. Mohammed was one of the few terrorists based in Africa who followed a genuinely global agenda and was willing to launch attacks on international targets.
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