Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah (Arabic: عبدالله أحمد عبدالله‎; born about 1963) is an Egyptian national wanted^[1][2] by the United States for his part in the 1998 American embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The FBI lists^[2] his aliases Abu Mariam, Abu Mohamed Al-Masri ( pronunciation  AH-boo moh-HAH-mehd MAHS-ree ), and Saleh, which may be^[3] an abbreviation of Saleh Gamal. According to the indictment, Abdullah is a member of the majlis al shura of al-Qaeda, helped (with Saif al-Adel) to set up terrorist training facilities in Somalia, provided a false passport to Mohammed Saddiq Odeh to enable the latter to travel to Afghanistan to meet Osama bin Laden. It is further alleged that Abdullah told Odeh that he should leave Kenya by 6 August 1998 (the day before the bombings) and that he fled Kenya himself, to Karachi, on the same airliner as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

Early life

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah was born in Egypt in 1963. Like other Islamic fugitives, Abdullah fled to Egypt to join the others. In 1992 he was one of the many who helped Saif al-Adel in providing intelligence and military training to those associated with Al Qaeda in Somalia and Sudan. Those who were trained, were among the group who fought against the Americans during the battle on Mogadishu and Operation Restoring Hope in 1993. Also between 1996 and 1998 he operated training camps in Afghanistan for Al Qaeda. Abdullah was responsible for forging a passport for Mohammed Saddiq Odeh so he could get from Pakistan to Afghanistan before the attack on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. After these attacks, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah has remained on the USA's most wanted list of terrorists and remains a terrorists operations planner for Al Qaeda.^[4]

Abdullah told colleagues he had been a professional soccer player for the Ghazl El-Mehalla team in Egypt.^[5]

Later life

Abdullah's location since he fled Nairobi was originally unknown. In the few years after his disappearance, he was generally thought to be in tribal Afghanistan or Pakistan.^[6] Later speculation put him in Iran under the protection of the Quds Force,^[7] Another report,^[8] citing unnamed UN and other sources, says that Abdullah and other al-Qaeda personnel were in Liberia around 2001, buying conflict diamonds on behalf of al-Qaeda. But another claim about Iran has appeared; the MIPT record on Abdullah reads in part

A joint Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian intelligence inquiry in April 2006 concluded that Abdullah currently resides in Southeast Iran, under the protection of the Hamze unit of the Revolutionary Guards.

An interrogation of former al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith confirmed that Abdullah is under house arrest in Iran.^[9]

Abdullah was one of the 22 original members, and is still a member, of the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists. The State Department, through the Rewards for Justice Program, is offering up to US$5 million for information on the location of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah.^[10]

Personal life

He is married to the daughter of Ahmad Salama Mabruk, who he has three daughters with.^[5]

References