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document echoing bin Laden’s desire to murder
FADHIL, MUSTAFA MOHAMED Americans. The document referred to “Brother
(1976– ) Khalid,” an alias reportedly used by Fadhil. The indict-
ment also charges that Fadhil worked to prepare the
aka Moustafa Ali Elbishy, Mustafa Mohammed, truck bomb, grinding the explosives used to make the
Mustafa Fazul, Hussein, Hassan Ali, Mustafa
Muhamad Fadil, Abd al Wakil al Masri, Abu Anis, bomb and later loading a truck with boxes of TNT,
Abu Yussrr, Hassan Ali, Nu Man, Khalid, Abu Jihad, oxygen and acetylene tanks, fertilizer, sandbags, and
Abu Jihad al-Nubi, Brother Khalid detonators.
On August 7, 1998, the truck exploded at the U.S.
Born in Cairo, Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil is embassy in Dar es Salaam. In a coordinated attack
believed to be a key member of Osama bin Laden’s 400 miles away, a truck bomb devastated the U.S.
Al Qaeda network. The United States indicted Fadhil embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The bombs killed
in 1998 for his alleged role in the bombings of U.S. 224 people.
embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, In the wake of the bombings, the United States
Kenya. declared that bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives were
According to the indictment, in 1997 Fadhil responsible. In retaliation, U.S. president Bill Clinton
received instructions from bin Laden to militarize the ordered air attacks on Al Qaeda’s Afghanistan training
East African sector of the Al Qaeda group. Al Qaeda, grounds and on a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant
an Arabic word meaning “The Base,” is an interna- in downtown Khartoum, Sudan.
tional terror network that engages in violence to drive Just days before the bombing in Dar es Salaam,
the United States from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic Fadhil flew to Pakistan. He is thought to have later
countries. In addition to the 1998 bombings, the group fled to Afghanistan, along with many of the other 26
is widely thought to have planned and executed indicted in the case. Three suspects indicted in the
the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade case pleaded guilty and cooperated with the U.S. gov-
Center in New York City and the Pentagon near ernment as witnesses. Four men linked to bin Laden
Washington, D.C. Headed by bin Laden, a Saudi citi- were convicted of conspiring in the bombings and
zen, the network acts as an umbrella group for other sentenced to life in prison without parole. For his
militant organizations. alleged role in the attack, Fadhil was named one of
The indictment asserts that Fadhil began plotting the 22 “most wanted terrorists” by the FBI in October
the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania in the 2001. The U.S. State Department offers a reward of up
spring of 1998. Fadhil is said to have rented the hide- to $25 million for information leading directly to his
out in Dar es Salaam where he and fellow Al Qaeda apprehension or conviction.
conspirators assembled the truck bomb. In the house, See also AL QAEDA; OSAMA BIN LADEN; EAST AFRICAN
officials later found a computer that contained a EMBASSY BOMBINGS

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