The killing of an al-Qaida mastermind who planned the devastating bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa drew praise Sunday from Kenyans and Somalis, while Somalia's president showed documents linking the dead man to militants who are trying to topple his nation's fragile, U.N.-backed government.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed eluded capture for 13 years and topped the FBI's most wanted list for planning the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. His death, reported Saturday by Somali officials, was the third major blow to al-Qaida in six weeks. The worldwide terror group was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month.
But Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said Mohammed also posed a grave threat to Somalia, which has been ravaged by two decades of anarchy and conflict. Ahmed congratulated government soldiers for killing Mohammed on Tuesday at a Mogadishu security checkpoint.
"His aim was to commit violence in and outside the country," Ahmed said, showing reporters documents and pictures he said government troops recovered from Mohammed.
Ahmed did not let reporters check the documents, but he held up photos he said were of Mohammed's family and operational maps for the militants in Mogadishu.
Ahmed also held up a condolence letter he said Mohammed sent after bin Laden's death. He didn't say who it was addressed to, but said Mohammed co-authored the letter with a known Islamist leader in Somalia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys.
Aweys, a veteran Islamist in Somalia since the 1990s, was the leader of the Hizbul Islam militant group that merged with al-Shabab last December. Aweys did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also honored the victims of the bombings during a visit to the U.S. compound in Tanzania.
Clinton told embassy workers that the U.S. has not forgotten its pledge "to seek justice against those who would commit such atrocities."
She added: "Last month al-Qaida suffered a major setback with the death of Osama bin Laden and yesterday we received news of another significant blow."
The attacks in Tanzania and Kenya killed 224 people. Most of the dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans died.
Source: The Mercury News
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