Top al-Qaeda suspect killed
2007-01-10 12:19
Mogadishu - A senior al-Qaeda suspect wanted for the United States embassy bombings in East Africa has been killed in a US airstrike in Somalia, says a government official, quoting Americans.
Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff, said: "I have received a report from the American side chronicling the targets and list of damage. One of the items they were claiming was that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is dead."
Rizak said it was not yet known if Abu Talha al-Sudani, believed to be an explosives expert, or another suspect, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, had been killed.
He also said the interim government had received its own local intelligence reports that Abdirahman Janaqow, one of the deputy leaders of the rival Islamic movement, had been killed in the attack.
225 people killed
Hassan added that at least three US airstrikes had been launched in the country. He said: "I know it happened yesterday, it will happen today and it will happen tomorrow."
Khadija Muhyadin said In Mogadishu, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at Ethiopian troops in the south of the capital, but missed the target and hit a house, injuring two civilians.
If confirmed, Mohammed's death would be a major victory for the US in its hunt for the 1998 embassy bombers. That attack killed 225 people.
According to a report, police at the Kenyan coastal border town of Kiunga on Monday arrested a wife of Mohammed, with her three children.
The report said Halima Badroudine Fazul Husseine, who initially gave her name as Sofia Mohammed Ali, said she and her children aged between four and 15 years, fled Kismayo, where they had lived since December.
- AP