Saturday, June 11, 2011

Fazul Abdullah Muhammed Killed

Reuters reports that Fazul Abdullah Muhammed, al-Qa'ida's leader in East Africa and one of the planners of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was killed Wednesday by Somali forces.

Bill Roggio has more details over at The Long War Journal, including Fazul's bio, rap sheet, and pictures.  Although he was directly targeted several times by U.S. forces, and had several narrow escapes, Fazul was apparently killed by TFG (Transitional Federal Government) forces at a checkpoint.

Although the details are still sketchy at this point, this appears to confirm the advantage of having capable (and reliable) indigenous forces when targeting individuals.*

(Of course, it is not really clear whether the TFG is capable or not, but they do possess advantages over U.S. forces with regards to local intelligence that enabled them to realize something was out of place at the checkpoint).

A wanted poster of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Commander of al-Qa'ida in East Africa, killed Wednesday by Somali forces

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