Ghailani, Ahmed Khalfan (1974–)

aka Ahmad Khalafan Ghilani, Ahmed Khalfan Ahmed, Abubakar K. Ahmed, Abubakary K. Ahmed, Abubakar Ahmed, Abu Bakr Ahmad, A. Ahmed, Ahmed Khalfan, Ahmed Khalfan Ali, Abubakar Khalfan Ahmed, Ahmed Ghailani, Ahmad al Tanzani, Abu Khabar, Abu Bakr, Abubakary Khalfan Ahmed Ghailani, Mahafudh Abubakar Ahmed Abdallah Hussein, Shariff Omar Mohammed, “Foopie,” “Fupi,” “Ahmed the Tanzanian”

Born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is alleged to be a member of the Al Qaeda network. He is said to have been directly involved in the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is accused of procuring the materials for and assembling the truck bomb that devastated the embassy in Dar es Salaam. The FBI has placed him on its “most wanted terrorists” list.

During the late 1990s, Ghailani was allegedly a member of the Tanzanian cell of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda group. Al Qaeda serves as an umbrella group for other militant organizations and establishes cells in areas where attacks are carried out. Ghailani allegedly worked closely with Al Qaeda operatives from the Kenyan and Tanzanian cells.

According to the 1998 U.S. indictment charging Ghailani with the murders of the 224 dead in the embassy bombings, Ghailani and fellow Al Qaeda operative Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan are charged with buying the Nissan Atlas refrigeration truck used to bomb the Dar es Salaam embassy. A few months before the attack, Ghailani also purchased the oxygen and acetylene tanks used in the bomb's construction, and helped load all of the bomb equipment (tanks, boxes of TNT, detonators, fertilizer, and sandbags) onto the truck.

Prosecutors in the embassy case say that Ghailani checked into the Hilltop Hilton in Nairobi, Kenya, on August 1, 1998. While there, he met with the fellow Al Qaeda operatives. Ghailani is said to have fled Africa for Pakistan on August 6, 1998. The very next day, in synchronized attacks 400 miles apart, truck bombs exploded at the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, one bomb detonating just minutes before the other.

Ghailani is believed to be in Afghanistan along with many of the other 26 indicted in the embassy bombings case. Three suspects in the case pleaded guilty and cooperated with the U.S. government as witnesses. In October 2001, four men linked to bin Laden were convicted of conspiring in the bombings; all the defendants, who had pleaded not guilty, were sentenced to life in prison without parole The U.S. State Department offers a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to Ghailani's apprehension or conviction.