Officials say the man suspected of masterminding the 1998 terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people was shot by Somali forces in Mogadishu last week.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Tanzania on June 11, welcomed the news of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed's death as "a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere."
The killing is the third major blow to Al-Qaeda in six weeks, following the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden on May 2 and the alleged death of another top Al-Qaeda man, Ilyas Kashmiri, believed to be behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Fazul was wanted by the U.S. for the August 7, 1998, embassy bombings that killed some 224 people, the majority of them Kenyans.
One of the FBI's most-wanted men, Fazul was believed to be the head of Al-Qaeda in East Africa and a key figure in Al-Shabab, Somalia's most violent militant group.
Somali officials say Fazul's identity was confirmed by a DNA test after he was killed in a gunfight that broke out when his vehicle sped through a security checkpoint on June 7.
compiled from agency reports
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Tanzania on June 11, welcomed the news of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed's death as "a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere."
The killing is the third major blow to Al-Qaeda in six weeks, following the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden on May 2 and the alleged death of another top Al-Qaeda man, Ilyas Kashmiri, believed to be behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Fazul was wanted by the U.S. for the August 7, 1998, embassy bombings that killed some 224 people, the majority of them Kenyans.
One of the FBI's most-wanted men, Fazul was believed to be the head of Al-Qaeda in East Africa and a key figure in Al-Shabab, Somalia's most violent militant group.
Somali officials say Fazul's identity was confirmed by a DNA test after he was killed in a gunfight that broke out when his vehicle sped through a security checkpoint on June 7.
compiled from agency reports