FBI releases new picture of wanted al-Qaeda man

By Cyrus Ombati

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has circulated a digitally enhanced and retouched photo of the most wanted al-Qaeda operative in East Africa.

The photo appearing on the FBI website shows Fazul Abduallah Mohammed looking different from past appearances that authorities had portrayed of him.

It shows him with a beard, but similar hairstyle. The picture was retouched in 2008 and released by the FBI and authorities believe that is Fazul’s current look.

"We are aware of his new appearances. It is possible Fazul has changed his image," said senior anti-terror police and intelligence officers who asked for anonymity.

A photo of Fazul Abduallah Mohammed appearing on the FBI website. He is the most wanted al-Qaeda operative in East Africa.

Kenya police are yet to upload the picture on their website or circulate it as it is required to enhance his hunt.

But police’s links on the wanted persons takes readers to the FBI website, which has almost 30 photos including that of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

The US wants Fazul for his involvement in the 1998 simultaneous bombings of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that left more than 250 people dead and scores injured.

Authorities also believe he masterminded the 2002 suicide attacks of a tourist resort on the Kenyan coast, which left 15 people dead, and moments later, a missile attack at an Israeli jet liner.

He has since fled to Somalia where intelligence sources say he is behind the recent suicide bomb attack on the African Union peacekeeping forces and another on a graduation ceremony for medical students that killed three Somali Cabinet ministers.

Master of disguise

Intelligence sources also said Fazul is a master of disguise, a skill he has used to elude police dragnets on several occasions, despite having a Sh350 million bounty on his head.

Sources say Fazul enters Kenya at will through its porous northeast border with Somalia. He evaded a police dragnet in 2008 after jumping from the first floor of a residential house and escaped. He had slipped to Malindi and stayed there as he sought medical attention before intelligence officers got wind of his presence.

Police blunders enabled him escape after they arrested a minor, whom he had sent to a local cyber cafÈ, thinking he was Fazul. Fazul watched the drama from the balcony. He later jumped down and took a lift to a local mosque from where he escaped using the road to Lamu and then to Somalia.

After the 2002 bombing, he was arrested at a cyber cafe in Mombasa with an accomplice. But officers who arrested him on that day did not know who he was and neither did they conduct a search on his accomplice.

On the way to the police station, caged behind in a police van with an officer guarding them, Fazul’s accomplice exploded a grenade, which killed the officer. The explosion allowed him to escape.

Intelligence sources on Fazul

• Fazul is wanted by police to answer 15 counts of premeditated murder, which occurred after the bombing of a tourist hotel in Kikambala and other terrorism activities

• He has since fled to Somalia where intelligence sources say he is behind the recent suicide bomb attack on the African Union peacekeeping forces

• Fazul is a master of disguise, a skill he has used to elude police dragnets on several occasions, despite having a Sh350 million bounty on his head