Terrorist with 10 fake names evaded arrest three times

The man was a chameleon.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed had more than 10 fake names and, was said to be able to disguise himself as either an African, an Arab or Asian depending on circumstances.

Although he was said to have been born in Comoros, he lived in Mombasa in SabaSaba area for several years before his name was linked to the August 7, 1998 twin bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.

Those who know him said he dressed casually and liked wearing baseball caps. He spoke French, Swahili, Arabic, English and Comoran and he was said to be a computer wizard.

The US State Department had put a reward of US $5 million (Sh425 million) for his arrest in connection with his involvement in 1998 bombings and the 2002 attack of the Israeli-owned hotel in at Kikambala in Kilifi District that happened simultaneously with the aborted attempt to down an Israeli airline at Moi International Airport, Mombasa.

His other aliases included Abdallah Fazul, Abdalla Fazul, Abdallah Mohammed Fazul, Fazul Abdilahi Mohammed, Fazul Adballah, Fazul Abdalla, Fazul Mohammed, Harun, Haroon Fazul, Harun Fazul, Fadil Abdallah Muhamad, Fadhil Haroun, Abu Seif Al Sudani, Abu Aisha, Abu Luqman, Fadel Abdallah, Mohammed Ali and Fouad Mohammed.

And despite the millions of dollars offered by the US Government for his arrest, Fazul had managed to evade arrest on numerous occasions by dramatically escaping from anti-terror dragnets in different parts of the world.

Here in Kenya, he evaded arrest more than three times. In 2002 he was arrested by police in Mombasa but was released under mysterious circumstances.

In 2008, the terror fugitive escaped the anti-terror dragnet twice in two weeks in Mombasa and Malindi.

The police had planned a normal search at a house near Sabasaba without knowing that the terror suspect was holed up in the building.

This was one week after he managed to evade arrest at a police road block along the Mombasa-Malindi road.

During the incident, the anti-terror police stopped a van he was driving near Kijipwa Police Station on suspicion it was carrying Fazul.

Fazul was coming from Malindi with his wife and a friend. The police, however, mistook him (Fazul) for a known cleric and let him pass the police roadblock.

Fazul is also said to have escaped numerous air strikes in Somalia targeting him and other Al Qaeda operatives believed to be holed up in the war torn Horn Africa country.

In 2007, he not only managed to escape from the US air strikes but also ensured that his family that included his wife and children arrived safely in Kenya where they were arrested and briefly detained before being flown to Comoros.

Fazul was believed to have a direct line with the late al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden himself.

He was al Qaeda’s top trainer and fixer and he was tied to numerous al Qaeda businesses and charity organisations in East Africa region.

Apart from being proficient at obtaining and producing forged documents, he was also said to be an accomplished bomb-builder and was involved in building the Nairobi embassy bomb in 1998 and the Kikambala bomb in 2002.