Fadhil, Mustafa Mohamed (1976–)

Born in Cairo, Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil is believed to have been a key member of al Qaeda, the terrorist network founded by Osama bin Laden. The United States indicted Fadhil in 1998 for his alleged role in the bombings of the 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. The indictment asserts that Fadhil began plotting the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania in the spring of 1998. He is said to have rented the hideout in Dar es Salaam where he and fellow al Qaeda conspirators assembled the truck bomb. In that 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 loaded 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, 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 individuals indicted in the case. Three suspects pled guilty and cooperated with the U.S. government as witnesses, while 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 put on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list in October 2001, and the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to his apprehension or conviction. Fadhil has since been dropped from the FBI's list, however, with no explanation given. It has been rumored that he was arrested in Pakistan in 2004, and human rights groups have charged that he may have been imprisoned secretly by the United States. However, this has never been confirmed.