Fazul Abdullah Mohammed

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed
Al-Qaeda operative Mohammed.
Nickname(s)	Abdallah Mohammed Fazul Abu Seif Al Sudani, Abu Aisha, Abu Luqman, Fadel Abdallah Mohammed Ali Fouad Mohammed Daniel Robinson
Buried	Somalia
Allegiance	Al-Qaeda Al-Shabaab
Service/branch	Al-Qaeda Actions in East Africa
Years of service	1990 - 2011
Commands held	Head of Al-Qaeda Actions in East Africa and Al-Shabaab's top military commander
Battles/wars	War in Somalia Battle of Ras Kamboni War in Somalia (2009–)

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed (Arabic: فاضل عبدالله محمد) (born August 25, 1972, February 25, 1974, or December 25, 1974 - June 8, 2011) was a suspected member of al-Qaeda, sometimes purported to be the leader of their East African presence. Mohammed was born in Moroni, Comoros Islands and had Kenyan as well as Comorian citizenship. He spoke French, Swahili, Arabic, English, and Comorian.

Role in al-Qaeda

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and a number of others are under indictment in the United States for their alleged participation in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. Mohammed has been on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists since its inception on October 10, 2001. At present the reward for finding Mohammed is US$5 million.

In Kenya, Mohammed was once the secretary of, and lived in the same house as, Wadih el Hage. El-Hage was indicted with Mohammed, and has been convicted. A letter to el-Hage, thought to be from Mohammed, was exhibited at el-Hage's trial.

Mohammed spent time in Mogadishu planning a truck bombing against a United Nations establishment there, and was in the city on October 3, 1993 when Somali gunmen brought down two American helicopters and killed 18 U.S. special operations soldiers.

War on Terror

Mohammed is suspected in Kenya of involvement in two attacks in Mombasa on November 26, 2002. One was the truck bombing of Paradise Hotel, in which 15 were killed.He also attempted bombings in the kaba and the hajj pilgrimage.When he was 13 years old he bombed his own family due to anger. He is reported the most dangerous man in the world in 2005. The other was the launch of two shoulder-fired missiles at an Israeli airliner on takeoff; the missiles missed and there were no casualties.

On May 26, 2004, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that reports indicated that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was one of seven al-Qaeda members who were planning a terrorist action for the summer or fall of 2004. American Democrats labeled the warning "suspicious" and said it was held solely to divert attention from President Bush's plummeting poll numbers and to push the failings of the Invasion of Iraq off the front page. CSIS director Reid Morden voiced similar concerns, saying it seemed more like "election year" politics, than an actual threat - and the New York Times pointed out that one day before the announcement, they had been told by the Department of Homeland Security that there were no current risks.

According to an FBI interrogation report, an associate of Mohammed confessed that the militant trained with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, also on that list, was captured in Pakistan a month later. Soon thereafter, several press reports, claiming UN and official US sources, described the participation of several al-Qaeda personnel, including Mohammed and Ghailani, in the acquisition and movement of diamonds in Liberia.

When the ferry MV Bukoba sank in Lake Victoria in 1996, taking al-Qaeda co-founder Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri with it, Fazul Mohammed was one of the people sent to the scene by al-Qaeda, to try to verify that Abu Ubaidah was dead and had not in fact defected.

Suspected involvement in Somali conflict

In early 2007, during the War in Somalia, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was thought to be in the border area near Ras Kamboni, along with remnants of the Islamic Courts Union. On January 8, 2007, a US Air Force AC-130 gunship targeted al-Qaeda in the area. It is likely he was one of the targets as The Pentagon has said the "target of the strike was the principal al-Qaeda leadership in the region." Somali government officials said that his death was confirmed in an intelligence report provided to Somali authorities by the United States. However, in an interview with the BBC, the US ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, denied that Mohammed had been killed in the airstrike, and stated that the search for the three al-Qaeda suspects continues. The gunship attack resulted in the deaths of at least 70 civilian nomads and many more injuries as they were searching for a water source at night. Mohammed's remains, if they are found, can be identified by aid of a DNA sample taken in Comoros.

One of Mohammed's wives and her children were captured trying to escape to Kenya from Somalia. They were arrested in Kiunga and brought to Nairobi for questioning. Before Mohammed's wife was deported back to Somalia by the Kenyan government a computer in her possession thought to have been Fazul's was seized and was said to have "contained vital information on terrorism training and intelligence collection including spying". Mohammed is believed to "be very good with computers".

Al-Qaeda top commander in East Africa and Al Shabaab top military commander

On November 11, 2009 Fazul was "inaugurated" during an open ceremony in the southern city of Kismayo, according to a translation received by The Long War Journal of an article posted Waaga Cusub, a website operated by the Hawiye clan, which supports the Somali insurgency. He "delivered his longest speech delivered his longest speech [sic]," the website reported. During his speech, Fazul said he was appointed by Osama bin Laden and praised his predecessor, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was killed during a US special operations raid in southern Somalia in mid-September. Fazul also said that al-Qaeda and Shabaab would take the fight to neighboring countries. "Praise be to Allah," Fazul said. "After Somalia we will proceed to Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia." Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, Shabaab's leader, also spoke at Fazul's appointment ceremony and praised Fazul's skill in training Somali jihadis. On July 15, 2010 the Saleh Ali Nabhan Brigade is likely led or directed by Fazul Mohammed. The cell that caried out the July 2010 Kampala attacks. The names of some of the foreign al-Qaeda leaders were disclosed in a report compiled by the African Union Mission for Somalia, according to The East African. The report was confirmed to The Long War Journal by a US intelligence official who closely watches Shabaab. The report listed Fazul is considered to be Shabaab's military leader.

Current whereabouts

While it was never confirmed that Mohammed escaped from the fighting in Somalia or had even been there when the violence broke out, Madagascar's largest newspaper, Midi Madagasikara reported in early February 2007 that Mohammed was now on the island nation. This is in contrast to the fact stated by Abdirizak Hassain, stating that he was killed in the Battle of Ras Kamboni by a U.S. airstrike. Quoting military and "other sources" the paper claimed he was in the city of Majunga. A partner of his from the Comoros now lives on the island.

On August 2, 2008 he supposedly escaped a police dragnet in Malindi, Kenya, but two of his aides were arrested. He was said to have been sneaked to Kenya from Somalia a few days earlier seeking treatment for kidney problems. The police confiscated two of his passports and a laptop among other belongings. The police operation took place only days before the 10th anniversary of 1998 Embassy bombings.

Death

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Ali Dere were driving in a car carrying 40,000 USD, medicines, phones, laptops and passports in the Afgoye corridor, northwest of Mogadishu on 8th June 2011. At 02:00 they failed to stop at a check point managed by SNA. SNA opened fire at the car killing both Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Ali Dere.

See also

• Battle of Ras Kamboni