Fadhil, Mustafa Mohamed (1976–)

aka Moustafa Ali Elbishy, Mustafa Mohammed, Mustafa Fazul, Hussein, Hassan Ali, Mustafa Muhamad Fadil, Abd al Wakil al Masri, Abu Anis, Abu Yussrr, Hassan Ali, Nu Man, Khalid, Abu Jihad, Abu Jihad al-Nubi, Brother Khalid

Born in Cairo, Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil is believed to be a key member of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The United States indicted Fadhil in 1998 for his alleged role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

According to the indictment, in 1997 Fadhil received instructions from bin Laden to militarize the East African sector of the Al Qaeda group. Al Qaeda, an Arabic word meaning “The Base,” is an international terror network that engages in violence to drive the United States from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. In addition to the 1998 bombings, the group is widely thought to have planned and executed the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. Headed by bin Laden, a Saudi citizen, the network acts as an umbrella group for other militant organizations.

The indictment asserts that Fadhil began plotting the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania in the spring of 1998. Fadhil is said to have rented the hideout in Dar es Salaam where he and fellow Al Qaeda conspirators assembled the truck bomb. In the house, officials later found a computer that contained a document echoing bin Laden's desire to murder Americans. The document referred to “Brother Khalid,” an alias reportedly used by Fadhil. The indictment also charges that Fadhil worked to prepare the truck bomb, grinding the explosives used to make the bomb and later loading a truck with boxes of TNT, oxygen and acetylene tanks, fertilizer, sandbags, and detonators.

On August 7, 1998, the truck exploded at the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam. In a coordinated attack 400 miles away, a truck bomb devastated the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The bombs killed 224 people.

In the wake of the bombings, the United States declared that bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives were responsible. In retaliation, U.S. president Bill Clinton ordered air attacks on Al Qaeda's Afghanistan training grounds and on a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in downtown Khartoum, Sudan.

Just days before the bombing in Dar es Salaam, Fadhil flew to Pakistan. He is thought to have later fled to Afghanistan, along with many of the other 26 indicted in the case. Three suspects indicted in the case pleaded guilty and cooperated with the U.S. government as witnesses. Four men linked to bin Laden were convicted of conspiring in the bombings and sentenced to life in prison without parole. For his alleged role in the attack, Fadhil was named one of the 22 “most wanted terrorists” by the FBI in October 2001. The U.S. State Department offers a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to his apprehension or conviction.