Abu Talha al-Sudani (also Abu Taha al-Sudan or Tariq Abdullah), born in Sudan, was a suspected member of

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

terrorist organization, an explosives expert and a close aide

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

. He is believed to have traveled to

Southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distric ...

along with Saif al-Adel,

Saif al-Islam al-Masri Saif al-Islam al-Masri ( ar, سيف الإسلام المصري) is the name of a certain member of al-Qaeda. The name is probably, but not certainly, a nom de guerre; ''Saif al-Islam'' means ''Sword of Islam'' and al-Masri means ''the Egyptian'', ...

, Abu Ja`far al-Masri and Abu Salim al-Masri, where he trained alongside

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

. A

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

ese national married to a Somali woman, al-Sudani had lived in Somalia since 1993. He was more recently identified as a close associate of

Gouled Hassan Dourad Guled Hassan Duran ( so, Guuleed Xasan Duraan) is a citizen of Somalia who is held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantánamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba. Guled Hassan Duran arrived at Guantanamo on September 6, 2006, and has ...

, leader of a

Mogadishu Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port ...

-based network that worked in support of Al Qaeda. The Office of the

Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Commu ...

revealed that al-Sudani had been involved with a plot to target the U.S. military base in

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

(see CJTF-HOA). Al-Sudani was also believed to be the financier of the

1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 200 people were killed in nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions in two East African cities, one at the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam, ...

. In December 2006, al-Sudani was reported to have led a group of ICU fighters in Idale as part of the

War in Somalia War in Somalia can refer to: *Somali Civil War (1991–present) :*War in Somalia (1992–1993) U.N. Unified Task Force :*Somalia War (2006–2009), Ethiopian intervention :*Somali Civil War (2009–present) {{Dab ...

. A month later he was the target of a U.S. Air Force

AC-130 The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance, attack aircraft, ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of ground-attack weapons that are integrated with sophisticate ...

airstrike An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...

that allegedly killed an undetermined number (up to 70) of civilian nomadic tribesmen (denied by a US official), but not al-Sudani. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', citing a

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

official, reported in late November 2007 that al-Sudani had been killed. On September 2, 2008, in a video taunting the United States,

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan ) (4 April 1979, Mombasa, Kenya – 14 September 2009, near Baraawe, Somalia) was the leader of al-Qaeda in Somalia. He was listed on the FBI's third major "wanted" list, the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list, for his associatio ...

confirmed the death of Abu Talha al-Sudani.

References

External links

Abu Talha al Sudani
Profile at GlobalSecurity.org

Crisis Group Assassinated al-Qaeda members Somalian al-Qaeda members Al-Sudani, Abu Talha Sudanese Islamists Year of birth missing 2007 deaths {{Somalia-bio-stub