Mohammed has been a fugitive from U.S. justice for over eight years. After al Qaeda blew to smithereens two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and injuring over 5,000, FBI agents poured into East Africa to follow the evidence. That was back in 1998, when the terrorist group finally grabbed Washington's attention. Investigators traced several suspects to a Nairobi hotel and from there, through phone records, to Mohammed's home in the Comoro Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

After alerting local police, the agents apparently just missed Mohammed, who they believe was a key plotter of the attacks. At his home, the FBI found letters and computer disks they say tied him directly to al Qaeda. In a landmark case against the terrorist group, he and a half-dozen others, including Osama bin Laden, were indicted in 1998 by a federal grand jury for their role in the bombings.

Since then, the 30-something Mohammed has proved to be an elusive character, repeatedly evading a manhunt by the FBI, the CIA, and their allies in East Africa. Mohammed hid out in lawless Somalia, from where he is suspected of having plotted the 2002 suicide bombing of a popular tourist hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, killing over a dozen people. The State Department has had a $5 million reward on Mohammed's head, and his handover was a key demand by U.S. officials of the Islamic Courts Union, which until last week held sway over much of Somalia.

In a sign of how much has changed since 9/11, Washington today seems less interested in capturing Mohammed, who remains under indictment, and more intent on simply killing the man.

Photo caption: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed

Photo credit: FBI photo