How jacket blunder led to the arrest of Al-Qaeda killers

One blunder happened as the Toyota Dyna truck carrying a bomb towards the US embassy in Nairobi left New Runda and snaked through the city traffic. It would later help track down the Al-Qaeda killers.

The ringleader, Mohamed Fazul, had noticed that the jacket worn by the Afghanistan-trained suicide bomber Rashid Daoud Al-Owhali was concealing the pistol. He asked him to remove it in order to reach the grenades faster once they reached the embassy.

On the driver’s seat was Jihad Mohammed Ali “Azzam” — a man who had arrived in Kenya a few days earlier. Both Azzam and Al-Owhali were the only passengers in the Toyota Dyna and the role of Fazul was to take them up to the embassy.

But as Azzam approached the drop bar hoping to get to the basement parking of the embassy, Al-Owhali alighted to go and scare off the guard stationed there.

He then realised that his pistol was in the jacket, which he had left in the truck which was now parked near the entrance.

TOSSED A GRENADE

The drop bar was still down — and the guard had taken off after Al-Owhali tossed a grenade — that alerted the security that an attack had commenced.

Amid the commotion, Azzam could not see Al-Owhali and he drove parallel to the embassy pondering his next move. Fazul was nowhere to give directions and Al-Owhali had only one option: press the button.

Then with a blinding flash and a deafening roar, the single bomb shook the ground, shattered everything and vaporised Azzam — the suicide bomber. But Al-Owhali was not dead.

As various Nairobi clinics attended to the victims, Al-Owhali walked — or was taken there — to seek first aid. Nobody seemed to notice the stun grenade in his belt as he walked to a nearby trash bin and stuffed it there.

BLEEDING FROM INJURY

Still bleeding from an injury on his forehead, Al-Owhali was then put into an ambulance and driven to MP Shah Hospital, where he registered as Khalid Salim.

In the mad rush, with victims on trolleys and on the floor, Salim was discharged. He then reached into his pocket, and realised that he still had three bullets and a key to the padlock that had locked the back door of the bomb truck.

Al-Owhali had arrived in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and had been advised to take a taxi to Eastleigh’s Ramada Hotel, where he booked Room 24. From here, FBI records would later indicate, he called someone in Pakistan to confirm his arrival.

That day, Fazul drove to Ramada and picked up his guest. He paid the bills even though the guest had not stayed overnight. They both left for Runda with the luggage — although the Ramada room was still booked for him.

FAKE PASSPORT

With the order to leave already issued, a final planning meeting was held at the Hilltop Hotel, in downtown Nairobi. Here, Mohammed Sadeek Odeh, the man who disguised himself as a fisherman, checked into Room 102b using a fake Yemeni passport. After holding a final meeting with all the terrorists — apart from the two suicide bombers — they all agreed to compare notes in a week’s time in Afghanistan.

Odeh was reluctant to travel and was advised to shave his beard. He was then given some cologne and cigarettes to make him look like a tourist.

On August 4, Ally Msalam, Fazul, and the bombers went round the embassy building for final surveillance.

They were later dropped at Runda and that night Ally Msalam flew out of Kenya. Odeh was the last to leave and generally unprepared. At 10pm on the night of August 6, he boarded a Pakistani International Airlines flight.

As the news on the US embassy bomb blast reverberated around the world, Odeh was airborne.

NO MONEY

Meanwhile in Nairobi, Al-Owhali returned to the hotel in Eastleigh and tried to flush some bullets down the toilet. He then hid them in a windowsill when everything failed. Because he was supposed to die, Al-Owhali had not carried his passport which was still in Runda. He also had no money!

At the hotel, the booking clerk brought a Yemeni to help him. He got new clothes and threw the bloodied ones in the dustbin.

Meanwhile in Karachi, the news of the Nairobi bombing was on all channels.

Odeh managed to slip through immigration but an observant officer realised that the man in the passport had a beard, unlike Odeh who had been ordered to shave it off in Nairobi. Odeh tried to bribe the officer and he was asked: “Are you a terrorist running away from Nairobi?” He was arrested. Al-Owhali was also arrested in Nairobi after an informant at the hotel gave him out.

DEPORT GROUP

Had Al-Owhali worn his jacket aboard the Toyota Dyna, the hunt for the ring leaders would not have been as fast. But with his arrest in Nairobi, everything fell into place.

Meanwhile, the bombing would have been thwarted had the CIA not dismissed a man who had walked into the US Embassy in September 1997 and told an official that seven men working for a local NGO had contacts with Osama.

The Al-Qaeda defector, Jamal Ahmed, was dismissed by the CIA which thought that the intelligence was of little value and only asked the Kenyan government to deport the group.

While the detectives carried out a night raid — disguised as theft — the documents did not give leads to any impending attack; after all everything was coded.