The al-Qaida mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was killed this week at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu by Somali forces who did not immediately realise they had killed the most wanted man in East Africa, officials said today.

A SENIOR al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing American embassies in east Africa was killed in a US airstrike, a Somali official said yesterday.

Witnesses reported renewed air strikes aimed at Islamic militant targets in Somalia today, and a Somali official claimed that a senior al-Qaida figure had been killed.

A Somali official said today that an al-Qaida suspect who planned the 1998 US Embassy bombings was killed in airstrike.

The target of US air strikes in Somalia is one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists and the suspected mastermind of two major terrorist attacks in east Africa.