Fazul Abdullah Mohammed’s death celebrated in Kenya and Somalia

Somalia’s president congratulates troops who killed al-Qaida terrorist responsible for African embassy bombings Kenyans and Somalis are celebrating the death of al-Qaida mastermind who planned East Africa’s deadliest terror attack in recent history and had eluded capture for 13 years, and Somalia’s president has congratulated the troops who killed him. The death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed – a man who topped the FBI’s most wanted list for planning the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania – was the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month. Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik 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. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also honoured the victims of the bombings during a visit to the American compound in Tanzania. She put flowers on a large rock just inside the main gate of the embassy, said a silent prayer and spoke with three Tanzanian employees who were at the embassy when it was bombed. The attacks in Tanzania and Kenya killed 224 people. Most of the dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans died. One of the survivors, Douglas Sidialo, was blinded by the bombing in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi. “God the creator has delivered Fazul Abdullah Mohammed to his destiny the same way he delivered Bin Laden to his destiny,” he said. “When you kill by the sword, bullets and bombs you die through a similar tragedy.” Sidialo, who said he once wanted to skin Bin Laden alive, said Sunday he has “moved on” and now would have preferred to see Mohammed captured alive and asked to account for his decisions. “Any death is not a cause of celebration,” he said. Thousands were wounded when a pickup truck rigged as a bomb exploded outside the four-story U.S. Embassy building. Within minutes, another bomb shattered the U.S. mission in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. “Killing terrorists only breeds more terrorists. We must find a lasting solution to this menace,” said Sidialo. Global terrorism Somalia Africa Kenya Tanzania guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.