Young Somali soldier killed al-Qaida ‘elder’

[Jacaylbaro]

NAIROBI, Kenya • The black Toyota SUV pulled up to the security checkpoint in Mogadishu. It was night, and 22-year-old Somali soldier Abdi Hassan recalls that he ordered the driver to switch the headlights off and the interior lights on.

 

"They are the elders," said the driver, referring to the car’s occupants with an honorific name for top leaders of al-Shabab, Somalia’s most dangerous militant group.

 

"I don’t know the elders," Hassan said he responded, letting the driver know he wouldn’t be simply waved through the checkpoint.

 

And thus a routine stop at a checkpoint in Somalia’s capital turned into a shootout resulting in the death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people. It was described in an exclusive interview on Monday with The Associated Press by Hassan, marking the first time details have emerged of a killing that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called a "significant blow to al-Qaida, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa."

 

The account given to AP by the young soldier was corroborated by Mogadishu’s deputy mayor for security based on reports of police who were with Hassan at the time. The events as described by Hassan show that while the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden was the result of meticulous gathering of intelligence and planning, Mohammed seems to have died because he had the bad luck of running into a government checkpoint manned by a determined soldier.

 

The driver complied with Hassan’s order and turned on the interior light. Hassan said he looked in and saw a pistol tucked in the driver’s waistband and an AK-47 assault rifle on the lap of the man beside him. That man, authorities later determined after he was already buried, was Mohammed, the mastermind of U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania almost 13 years ago and the most wanted man in East Africa.

 

"Don’t move your gun," shouted Hassan, pointing his weapon at the man with the assault rifle. The passenger shouted as the driver drew his pistol to fire at Hassan, the soldier recalled. But the pistol jammed, and Hassan said he fired 30 bullets, a full magazine from his AK-47, into the Toyota Hilux Surf. Both Mohammed and the driver shot back, Hassan said, filling the air with gunfire. When the shooting stopped the two men in the Toyota were dead.

 

When the driver referred to "the elders" in the vehicle, that indicated he had at least two passengers. After the shootout, Hassan said he noticed that one of the SUV’s backdoors was open, leading to speculation at least one other occupant may have escaped.

[oba hiloowlow]

Hassan nin rag iga dheh inkaasto coincidence ay aheyd wararku waxey sheegayaan in Godane maleegay falkaan, kedib markii xilkuqaadis uu sameyn rabay Fazul taasi waxey sababtay iney Habeenkaas garasbaalley ku yiraahdo ciidan ayaa kugu sugaayo kedibna Godane wuxuu amray ciidanka iney baneeyaan Checkpointk-a garasbaalley marka Fazul iyo ninkii la socday sey uu socdeen waxey ku dhaceen check-pointka dowladda ee ex controll Afgooye. Marka Godane subaxdii inaan la gaarin kolkii uu xaqiiqsaday dhimashada Fuzul wuxuu toogasho ku dilay sarkaalkii heystay Garasbaalley ciidamadiisana xabsiga la dhigay.. Some romours are saying that iney Alqaida iyo shabaab ku kala tageen falkaan