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The alleged body of the presumed head of al-Qa'ida in east Africa, Fazul Abdullah Muhammad, is kept at the back of a pick up truck. (AFP)
Unknowing of their identity, the two bodies were already buried when documents indicated a larger catch. For $5 million reward, the bodies were exhumed and entrusted to US officials for dna testing.
Below the fold … “Al-Qa’ida leader killed in Mogadishu”
Al-Qa’ida leader killed in Mogadishu
The presumed head of al-Qa’ida in east Africa, Fazul Abdullah Muhammad, has been killed in Mogadishu according to Kenya’s police chief. Fazul Abdullah, 38, is thought to have planned the massive US embassy truck bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998 and had a $5 million bounty on his head. Interpol | FBI | USGov.
“We have received that communication from authorities in Somalia. We have been told that there were two terrorists who were killed in Somalia last week,” Kenyan Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said, confirming a report from Somali Islamist Shebab rebels. Iteere said the identity of one of the two had “been given as Fazul Muhammad … That is what we have been told by our counterparts in Somalia.”
“One of the men that was killed near Mogadishu was Fazul Abdullah, may Allah bless his soul. He is not dead as thousands like him are still in the fight against the enemy of Allah,” a senior Al Shebaab commander had earlier this week on condition of anonymity.
Officials with the Somali Transitional Government (TFG) said the men were killed at a roadblock on Tuesday night.
“Our forces fired on two men who refused to stop at a roadblock. They tried to defend themselves when they were surrounded by our men,” a TFG military commander, Abdikarim Yusuf said. “We took their ID documents, one of which was a foreign passport.”
The incident happened on the north western outskirts of the Somali capital. The two men were driving in a pick-up truck full of medicine, laptops and mobile phones. (Somalia Report)
TWO MEN MADE THE WRONG TURN
The same source said the two appeared to have taken the wrong turning and ended up in an area under TFG control when they were trying to reach a Shebab position.
A Somali source close to the investigation said the man identified as Fazul was in possession of a South African passport in the name of Daniel Robinson and which 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.
The man was also in possession of $US40,000 in cash, the same Somali source said. He appeared to have come from Lower Juba in southern Somalia where he was heading a group of foreign fighters under the name of “Abu-Abdirahman the Canadian.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."