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Fazul Abdullah Mohammed’s Death: An Overdue Counterterror Victory in Somalia

By experts and staff

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  • Micah Zenko
    Senior Fellow
Civilians look at the suspected body of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed (L), one of Africa’s most wanted al Qaeda operatives, and an unidentified colleague killed at a police checkpoint in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu in this picture taken June 8, 2011. Somali police said on Saturday that Abdullah Mohammed, one of Africa’s most wanted al Qaeda operatives, was killed in the capital of the Horn of Africa country earlier this week. Picture taken June 8, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer

Reportedly, Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government killed the most-wanted terrorist in Africa, Al Qaeda operative Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, in a random gun fight in Mogadishu on Tuesday. However implausible that story may be, his death is a victory for the victims of terror attacks by Al Qaeda in East Africa (as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged while visiting Tanzania this weekend).

According to the UN, Mohammed was an associate of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban; “provided Al-Qaida paramilitary training and assistance to Somalis opposed to the United Nations intervention in Somalia”; “conspired with… others to commit, under the direction of Al Qa[e]da, the 7 August 1998 bombings of the Embassies of the United States of America in Kenya and Tanzania”; “transferred funds received from Bin Laden to Mombasa, Kenya, and facilitated Al Qa[e]da’s internal communications…and participated in the final preparations for the bombing of the United States Embassy in Nairobi”; “conspired to attack a civilian airliner in Mombasa and at the same time to bomb the Paradise Hotel in Kikambala, Kenya, killing twelve people and injuring forty”; “planned further bomb attacks in the area, including another attack against the United States Embassy in Nairobi”; and “conspired to commit terrorist acts during 4 July 2004 celebrations and the presidential elections in the United States”—among other crimes.

As would be expected for a terrorist of his notoriety—and one with a $5 million reward on his head—Mohammed was the target of repeated assassination attempts by the United States. The United States has tried to kill Mohammed, as well as his Al Qaeda associates in Somalia, no less than eight times since 2006: