Owhali, Mohamed Rashed al (1977–)

Mohamed Rashed al Owhali (aka Mohammed Akbar; Abdul Jabbar Ali Abdel-Latif; Khalid Salim Saleh Bin Rashid) is known for being the failed martyr who ran from the bomb-laden truck in front of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, just before it exploded. A member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, Owhali was later captured and convicted of playing a direct role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa; he is now serving a life sentence in the United States.

Mohamed al Owhali was born in Liverpool, England, where his wealthy Saudi father was a student. He formed radical ideas as a teenager, listening to audiotapes of conservative clerics and reading religious magazines. After high school, Owhali studied at Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. After graduating from college, Owhali and a group of friends left for Afghanistan to join the fight against the Soviets. In Afghanistan, Owhali studied military and covert operations. He also met al Qaeda leaders and fought with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance in 1996.

Owhali was later recruited for the attack on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. In July 1998 he used a Yemeni passport to travel to Kenya, just a week before the bombing. In his confession, he said that the operation was planned so that he and a fellow driver would die as martyrs. On August 7, 1998, Owhali rode in the cab of the Toyota truck carrying the bomb to the U.S. embassy compound in Nairobi. As the truck neared the embassy, he threw a grenade at the guard stationed outside. Once the truck pulled up alongside the embassy, he decided that his death was not necessary for the mission to be accomplished. Just before his partner detonated the bomb from inside the cab, Owhali ran from the embassy compound.

[Page 453]The blast partially demolished the embassy. At the same time, 400 miles away in Dar es Salaam, another bomb exploded at the U.S. embassy there. In total, the two blasts killed 224 people. Owhali, who had cuts and abrasions all around his hands and face and a large wound on his back, was left without money or plane tickets, as he had been expected to die in the bombing. He went to a local hospital to get treatment, and while he was in the hospital bathroom, he threw away the keys from the padlock on the back of the bomb truck and three bullets from a gun he had left in the truck. Two days later, Kenyan officials found and arrested him. He was later tried with three others in a New York court. During the trial, the prosecuting attorney showed a photograph, taken after the bombing, of Owhali, his hands clasped together in the boxer's symbol of victory.

In June 2001 a jury sentenced the 24-year-old Owhali to life in prison. Several jurors said that they had decided against the death penalty because executing him could have given him the status of a martyr.