Two arrested as top terror suspect flees

• Fazul is wanted over the August 7, 1998 bomb attacks on the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-salaam
• Police believe that Fazul now on the run and he has neither money nor a passport.
• Sources said Fazul may have crossed the border to escape US intelligence officers

They include a planned aerial attack on the new US embassy at Gigiri, an attempt to bomb a tourist hotel at Diani in Mombasa, and plans to detonate a bomb at a strategic Mombasa location during the World Cross Country Championships held in the town early last year.

All the three attempts have been traced to Fazul, who has also been accused of masterminding the November 2002 bombing of Mombasa’s Paradise Hotel that left 15 people dead.

Sources say plans to bomb the new US embassy in June 2003 had been uncovered six months in advance and a trap laid to capture the plotters. Counter-terrorism agents learned of the attack in late 2002 after interrogating two suspects who had been arrested in connection with the bombing of Paradise Hotel.

Detained in Cuba

Using vital tips extracted from the two — who are now detained by the US in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — the agents intercepted vital communication between Somalia and Mombasa in regard to the plot. Key names in the plan included Fazul, Swaleh Nabhan and Feisal Ali, a Yemeni citizen.

According to the information given by the two men, the terrorists had recommended an aerial attack that would involve crash-landing a plane on the embassy building, then still under construction, and simultaneously crash into the premises a truck laden with explosives.

It later emerged that Fazul had sneaked into Mombasa in May, 2003, to finalise the attack plan which was to be executed the following month. Acting on a tip-off, counter-terrorism agents later trailed him to Mogadishu where they narrowly failed to capture him. However, an accomplice, one Sulayman Hemed, a Yemeni, was captured. He revealed details of the attack during interrogation.

An earlier plan to attack on US interests in the region would have been in July 2001 where a hotel frequented by Americans at Diani was identified as a target. Also targeted was a US cruise ship scheduled to dock at Mombasa in August of the same year.

The attacks would be part of a series targeting US interests across the continent ahead of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington DC.

And in March last year, the terrorists had planned to strike again when Kenya was hosting the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa. Three weeks to the event whose opening was officiated by President Kibaki, a suspect, Abdulmalik Mohamed, was arrested at a forex bureau near Fort Jesus in Mombasa. He had gone to change some $6,000 and receive another $10,000 from a known al-Qaeda linkman in London. The sender of the money was also arrested the same day.

Abdulmalik was supposed to use the money to hire a vehicle which would have been used to transport a bomb to a location on the cross-country route. Intelligence agents later traced the planning of the attack to Fazul.