Fazul
was killed at a checkpoint in the
Somali capital by Somalia’s
Transitional Federal Government
officers.
US Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton was the first US
official to publicly confirm the death
of Fazul.
She called it “a just end for a
terrorist who brought so much
death and pain to so many
innocents” from the embassy
bombings.”
Fazul’s death brought to an end one
of the most elaborate and expensive
manhunts in East Africa.
But a network – probably battered
by Fazul’s death – remains that
security agencies in the region will
still have to dismantle.
Separately, anti-terrorism police
sources said that DNA identification
tests had been conducted on the
bodies of the two men killed at the
road block before their identity was
confirmed.
The other was a Somali national.
Reuters news agency quoted
Mogadishu police confirming they
had killed Fazul.
“He had a fake South African
passport and of course other
documents. After thorough
investigations, we confirmed it was
him, and then we buried his
corpse,” the news agency quoted
Halima Aden, a senior national
security officer in Mogadishu.
Security agencies also issued a
picture of the man who had eluded
capture for nearly 13 years and who
was believed to epitomise al Qaeda
and al Shabaab activities across East
Africa.
The picture showed that Fazul had
apparently been shot in the chest
and his head was intact.
Fazul, believed to be about 38 (his
exact date of birth is not known),
joined al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and
trained there with Osama bin Laden,
the terror network’s leader,
according to the transcript of an FBI
interrogation of a known associate.
The US government had placed a
$5m (about Sh400 million) reward
on his head for allegedly conspiring
to bo.mb the US embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania in 1998.
He was also suspected of planning
the bombing of the Paradise Beach
Hotel at Kikambala in Kilifi and a near
simultaneous attempt to shoot
down an Israeli aircraft in November
2002. In the Kikambala bombing, 15
people were killed and more than 80
injured.
Fazul was said to have held
citizenship in the Comoros Islands
and Kenya. He was indicted on
September 17, 1998, in a U.S.
federal district court in Manhattan for
his alleged involvement in the
bombings of the US embassies.
It is understood that President Kibaki
was briefed on Thursday about the
killing of the man most wanted for
the embassy bombings that killed
201 Kenyans and 12 Americans on
August 7, 1998.
The incident happened on the
northwestern outskirts of the Somali
capital, according to a regional
security source.
The two men were driving in a
pickup truck full of medicine, laptops
and mobile phones. They
apparently took a wrong turn while
trying to reach an al Shabaab
position and ended up in an area
under TFG control.
A Somali source close to the
investigation said Fazul was carrying
a South African passport in the
name of Daniel Robinson that gave
his date of birth as 1971.
The passport issued April 13, 2009
indicated that its bearer left South
Africa for Tanzania on March 19 and
was granted a visa there. The
Tanzanian visa was the only one in
the passport..
was killed at a checkpoint in the
Somali capital by Somalia’s
Transitional Federal Government
officers.
US Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton was the first US
official to publicly confirm the death
of Fazul.
She called it “a just end for a
terrorist who brought so much
death and pain to so many
innocents” from the embassy
bombings.”
Fazul’s death brought to an end one
of the most elaborate and expensive
manhunts in East Africa.
But a network – probably battered
by Fazul’s death – remains that
security agencies in the region will
still have to dismantle.
Separately, anti-terrorism police
sources said that DNA identification
tests had been conducted on the
bodies of the two men killed at the
road block before their identity was
confirmed.
The other was a Somali national.
Reuters news agency quoted
Mogadishu police confirming they
had killed Fazul.
“He had a fake South African
passport and of course other
documents. After thorough
investigations, we confirmed it was
him, and then we buried his
corpse,” the news agency quoted
Halima Aden, a senior national
security officer in Mogadishu.
Security agencies also issued a
picture of the man who had eluded
capture for nearly 13 years and who
was believed to epitomise al Qaeda
and al Shabaab activities across East
Africa.
The picture showed that Fazul had
apparently been shot in the chest
and his head was intact.
Fazul, believed to be about 38 (his
exact date of birth is not known),
joined al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and
trained there with Osama bin Laden,
the terror network’s leader,
according to the transcript of an FBI
interrogation of a known associate.
The US government had placed a
$5m (about Sh400 million) reward
on his head for allegedly conspiring
to bo.mb the US embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania in 1998.
He was also suspected of planning
the bombing of the Paradise Beach
Hotel at Kikambala in Kilifi and a near
simultaneous attempt to shoot
down an Israeli aircraft in November
2002. In the Kikambala bombing, 15
people were killed and more than 80
injured.
Fazul was said to have held
citizenship in the Comoros Islands
and Kenya. He was indicted on
September 17, 1998, in a U.S.
federal district court in Manhattan for
his alleged involvement in the
bombings of the US embassies.
It is understood that President Kibaki
was briefed on Thursday about the
killing of the man most wanted for
the embassy bombings that killed
201 Kenyans and 12 Americans on
August 7, 1998.
The incident happened on the
northwestern outskirts of the Somali
capital, according to a regional
security source.
The two men were driving in a
pickup truck full of medicine, laptops
and mobile phones. They
apparently took a wrong turn while
trying to reach an al Shabaab
position and ended up in an area
under TFG control.
A Somali source close to the
investigation said Fazul was carrying
a South African passport in the
name of Daniel Robinson that gave
his date of birth as 1971.
The passport issued April 13, 2009
indicated that its bearer left South
Africa for Tanzania on March 19 and
was granted a visa there. The
Tanzanian visa was the only one in
the passport..
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