Al Qaeda dealt another blow with demise of its East African leader

Al Qaeda's Leader in Africa Killed

Al Qaeda's Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the organization's leader in East Africa, has been killed in a shootout in Mogadishu, Somalia according to Somali and U.S. officials.

Mr. Mohammed is said to have orchestrated the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U.S. had placed a $5 million bounty on the terrorist's head.

The death of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is a huge victory for the United States and its allies in the so-called war against terror. U.S. officials wanted to keep up their offensive to pre-empt reprisals by Al Qaeda for Bin Laden's death.

"Fazul's death is a significant blow to Al Qaeda, its extremist allies and its operations in East Africa," U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said.

Clinton added that justice has finally been achieved for victims of the two terror acts. "It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so  much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere - Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis and our own embassy personnel," she said.

U.S. Special Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency have been active for years in Somalia fighting Al Qaeda and other extremists. But officials said that they had no direct involvement with the killing of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.

Mr. Muhammad is believed to have brought materials used to make bombs into Somalia. He reportedly raised money to fund terror plots and helped recruit and train foreigners into Al Qaeda's terror cells in Africa and the Middle East.

Posted by James Fried on Monday June 13 2011, 9:00 PM EST. Ref: NYT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0