MOGADISHU – Somali police said today that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of Africa’s most wanted al-Qaeda operatives, was killed in the capital of the Horn of Africa country on Tuesday.
Mohammed was reputed to be the head of al-Qaeda in east Africa, operated in Somalia and is accused of playing a lead role in the 1998 embassy attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which killed 240 people.
Police said they shot Mohammed at a checkpoint in Mogadishu after an exchange of fire at midnight on Tuesday.
Washington says several al-Qaeda members involved in the embassy bombings sought sanctuary in neighboring Somalia, where Islamist al Shabaab insurgents, who claim links to al-Qaeda, are fighting a weak Western-backed administration.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. (Reuters)
