Mohammad, Fazul Abdullah (1972 or 1974–)

aka Abdallah Fazul, Abdalla Fazul, Abdallah Mohammed Fazul, Fazul Abdilahi Mohammed, Fazul Adballah, Fazul Abdalla, Fazul Mohammed, Haroon, Harun, Haroon Fazul, Harun Fazul, Fadil Abdallah Muhamad, Fadhil Haroun, Abu Seif al Sudani, Abu Aisha, Abu Luqman, Fadel Abdallah Mohammed Ali, Fouad Mohammed

Fazul Mohammad, who was born in the Cormoros Islands, a tiny former French colony off the coast of East Africa, is alleged to be a member of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The explosives and computer expert is included on the FBI's list of the 22 “most wanted terrorists” for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

As a teenager, Mohammad received a scholarship for a fundamentalist Islamic education in Pakistan and left the Cormoros. According to the U.S. indictment in September 1998 in the embassy bombings, he attended Al Qaeda's paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan in 1991 and 1992.

Al Qaeda, an Arabic word meaning “The Base,” is an international network that advocates and uses force and violence to achieve the goal of driving the United States from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. The group, which serves as an umbrella group for other militant organizations, establishes cells in areas where attacks are carried out. Al Qaeda members manage the cells and recruit individuals to perform administrative and other tasks. According to the indictment, Mohammad worked for Wadih el-Hage, the leader of the Nairobi cell in Kenya. He and other Al Qaeda members also allegedly provided military training to Somali tribes opposed to the U.N. intervention in Somalia's civil war in 1993.

[Page 237]The indictment also claims that in late 1996 or early 1997 Mohammad began sending coded messages to coconspirators in the embassy bombings plot. He and el-Hage carried funds from bin Laden to Kenya. He later rented the Nairobi villa at 43 New Runda Estates where the bomb was assembled and where final preparations for bombing the embassy were made. On August 7, 1998, Mohammad left the villa in a pickup truck, driving just ahead of the bomber to lead the way to the U.S. embassy. In a synchronized attack 400 miles away, a bomb-laden car also approached the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The bombs exploded just minutes apart, killing a total of 224 people.

Shortly following the embassy bombings, the U.S. government declared that bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives were responsible. As retaliation, U.S. president Bill Clinton ordered air attacks on Al Qaeda training grounds in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in the center of Khartoum, Sudan.

Mohammad fled to the Cormoros Islands the week following the attacks, then flew on to Dubai. He is a fugitive, along with many of the 26 indicted in the United States for crimes related to the attacks. Three suspects indicted in the embassy bombings case pleaded guilty and cooperated with the U.S. government as witnesses. This resulted in the conviction of el-Hage and three other men linked to bin Laden for conspiracy in the bombing at their October 2001 trial in U.S. District Court in New York City. All of the defendants who pleaded not guilty were sentenced to life in prison without parole. The U.S. State Department is offering up to $25 million for information leading to Mohammad's arrest or conviction.