Somali transitional government forces killed a top al Qaeda operative last Wednesday in Mogadishu, Somalia. U.S. officials have confirmed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was believed to be the leader of al Qaeda operations in East Africa, was shot and killed after speeding through a security checkpoint. Another male passenger was also killed, but his identity remains unknown. A female passenger survived and was arrested. Sources say government forces recovered multiple weapons, passports and about $40,000 in cash from Mohammed’s vehicle.
Mohammed, also known as Harun Fazul, was perhaps the most wanted terrorist in Africa. He had numerous aliases and disguises that allowed him to travel in and out of Somalia without alerting his enemies. The United States put a $5 million bounty on Mohammed for his involvement in the August 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people. Mohammed was also a top military commander of al Shabaab, an Islamist militant group fighting for control of Somalia.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applauded Mohammed’s death in a statement released over the weekend. "It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and elsewhere -- Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, others in the region and our own embassy personnel," she said.
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