Picture Courtesy of Times of Israel
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 16- Israeli agents are reported to have in August killed Al Qaeda’s second in command, accused of masterminding the U.S Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es salaam twenty two years ago.
Coincidentally, his killing happened exactly 22 years after the embassy bombings.
However, Tehran, who have kept the incident secret for the last four months have instead reported the death as that of Lebanese history professor and his daughter Maryam.
Abdullahi Ahmed Abdullah alias Abu Muhammed al Masri was driving his Renault L90 on a quite Tehran street in the company of his daughter Miraim when they were accosted and shot by two armed men on a motorcycle.
Miriam was the widow of Osama Bin Laden’s son Hamza Bin Laden.
The US had put a $ 10 million (Sh1 billion) bounty on his head for the East Africa US embassy bombings on August 7, 1998 and a Mombasa attack in 2002 in which five Kenyans and three Isaeli tourists were killed.
He has been sought by the US National Counter Terrorism Centre since the 9/11 attack in September 11, 2001 that claimed 2,977 lives.
He has been described as one of Al-Qaeda’s experienced former chief of training and able planner.
Al Masri who was once detained by Iran before being released during a prisoner swap in exchange of the abducted Iranian diplomat in Yemen, lived in Tehran’s posh Pasdaran area since 2015.
The Egyptian born former footballer is reported to have joined Al Qaeda in 1979 and fought against Soviet Union in Afghanistan before joining the jihadist group.
As one of Bin Laden’s closests associates, Al Masri was linked to the shooting down of the U.S military Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu, Somalia in what has been dubbed ‘Black Hawk Down’.
His killing has been reported by The New York Times.
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