Alleged Mastermind of 1998 Bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi & Dar Killed

The man alleged to have masterminded the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Nairobi & Dar es salaam has been killed by Somali Transitional Federal Government forces on a chance encounter in Mogadishu.

The New York Times reports:

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Al Qaeda’s leader in East Africa and the mastermind of the American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, was killed in a late-night shootout at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, Somali and American officials said Saturday.
The killing, after Mr. Mohammed accidentally encountered a Somali checkpoint, was a major loss for the terrorist network, still reeling from the assassination of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan last month.
 Mr. Mohammed, who was one of the most wanted men in Africa and had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States government, and another militant mistakenly drove up to a checkpoint run by Somali government soldiers late on Tuesday night.
The Somali soldiers fired on their truck, a black Toyota four-by-four, and the men fired back, Somali officials said. Seconds later, Mr. Mohammed and the other militant were dead.
Somali officials said that DNA tests carried out in Kenya “by our friends” — suggesting the Central Intelligence Agency, which has been working covertly in Somalia for years — confirmed Mr. Mohammed’s identity on Saturday.