Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan (April 9, 1960/69 – January 1, 2009) was a fugitive wantedCopy of indictment
USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies,

Monterey Institute of International Studies The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly known as the Monterey Institute of International Studies, is an American graduate school of Middlebury College, a private college in Middlebury, Vermont. Established ...

Swedan profile at Rewards For Justice
, US Department of State
, US Department of Justice in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was alleged to have purchased the Toyota and Nissan trucks used in the attacks, flying out of Nairobi to

Karachi, Pakistan Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

five days before the assault was launched. Swedan was on the

FBI Most Wanted Terrorists The FBI Most Wanted Terrorists is a list created and first released on October 10, 2001, with the authority of United States President George W. Bush, following the September 11 attacks on the United States. Initially, the list contained 22 of t ...

list since its inception in October 2001. He was born in

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. The UN 1267 CommitteeUN list of affiliates of al-Qaeda and the Taliban
/ref> referred to him as Ahmed Salim Swedan Sheikh. He was also known as Sheikh Ahmad Salem Suweidan, Sheikh Ahmed Salem Swedan, Sheikh Swedan, Sheikh Bahamadi, Ahmed Ally, Bahamad, Sheik Bahamad, Ahmed the Tall and Abu Yahya al-Kini. Swedan had, in the past, managed a trucking business in Kenya. Swedan purchased a beige

Toyota Dyna The Toyota Dyna is a light to medium-duty cab over truck for commercial use. In the Japanese market, the Dyna is sold alongside its twin called the Toyoace. The Toyoace was a renaming of the Toyopet SKB Truck as a result of a 1956 public competi ...

truck in Nairobi, and a 1987

Nissan Atlas The Nissan Atlas ( ja, 日産・アトラス) is a series of pickup trucks and light commercial vehicles manufactured by Nissan. It is built by UD Trucks for the Japanese market, and by the Renault-Nissan Alliance for the European market. The ...

refrigeration truck in Dar es-Salaam. Six metal bars were used to form a "cage" on the back of the Atlas, to accommodate the bomb.Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon. "The Age of Sacred Terror", 2002

Rumors of capture

As the first anniversary of the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Suicide attack, suicide List of terrorist incidents, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, ...

approached, a few unsubstantiated reports came out of Pakistan that various wanted al-Qaeda suspects had been captured in that country and handed over to the Americans without any legal process. On July 12, 2002, a police officer in Karachi reported that Pakistani authorities had arrested Sheikh Ahmed Saleem, referring to him as an alleged financial advisor of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. He was reportedly caught along with two other al Qaeda militants. The officer further misidentified Saleem as 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 ...

national, who had apparently fled Afghanistan for Pakistan after the US-led military campaign began in October 2001. The three militants were arrested together during an overnight raid on a suburban apartment in the commercial port city of Karachi. However, it later was suggested that Pakistani news organizations and the officials may have confused Ahmed Salim, the FBI-wanted Kenyan who had run a trucking business, with a Sudanese man with a similar name, Mamdouh Salim. In fact Mamdouh Salim had already been captured in 1998 in Germany. But then on September 9, 2002, the Lahore-based Daily Times once again reportedMost wanted Al Qaeda suspects arrested from Karachi?
''Daily Times'' (of Pakistan), 9 September 2002 that Ahmed Salim had indeed been arrested earlier that summer, on July 11, 2002, in Methadar, an area very close to the place from where

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (sometimes also spelled Shaikh; also known by at least 50 pseudonyms; born March 1, 1964 or April 14, 1965) is a Pakistani Islamist militant held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-re ...

was also arrested a month earlier, according to the paper. But KSM was actually captured a year later. On September 11, 2002, journalist

Syed Saleem Shahzad Syed Saleem Shahzad ( ur, , 3 November 1970 – 30 May 2011) was a Pakistani investigative journalist who wrote widely for leading European and Asian media. He served as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online (Hong Kong) and Italian new ...

of the Asia Times wrote that back in July 2002, Pakistani intelligence agents were led to Salim's cell by satellite telephone intercepts provided by the FBI. These led to the arrest in Karachi of a more junior al-Qaeda figure, a Saudi known only as Riyadh or Riaz. Riyadh in turn led investigators to Salim, who was arrested in

Kharadar Kharadar ( ur, کھارادر ) is a neighbourhood in District South of Karachi, Pakistan. Kharadar and the adjacent communities of Mithadar and Jodia Bazaar together form what is regarded as the original core of Karachi. Etymology ''Kharadar' ...

in the south of the city.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

quoted two more press claims that Swedan had been arrested in July 2002, and transferred to US custody.(section) Arrest and transfer to US custody of Sheikh Ahmed Salim and several others in July 2002
,

, 1 November 2002 On July 6, 2007, Swedan was listed as a possible CIA "Secret Prisoner" by Amnesty International, despite the fact he remained on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list on the published date (July 6, 2007).

Death

On January 1, 2009, Swedan was killed in Pakistan in an American unmanned drone missile strike along with Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam at an

al-Qaeda safe house Al-Qaeda is understood to have operated a number of safe houses, some of which were used as training centres. United States, American intelligence analysts justified the extrajudicial detention of some Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, Guantanamo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swedan, Ahmed 1960s births 2009 deaths Assassinated al-Qaeda leaders Deaths by United States drone strikes in Pakistan FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Kenyan al-Qaeda members Kenyan expatriates in Pakistan People from Mombasa