Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan (9 April 1960/1969 – 1 January 2009) was a fugitive wantedCopy of indictment

USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International StudiesSwedan 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 five days before the assault was launched. Swedan was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists 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 British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. 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. He purchased a beige Toyota Dyna truck in Nairobi, and a 1987 Nissan Atlas 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 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 12 July 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, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

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. On 9 September 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 11 July 2002, in Mithadar, an area very close to the place from where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was also arrested a month earlier, according to the paper. But KSM was actually captured a year later. On 11 September 2002, journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad 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 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 that it has more than ten million members a ...

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 6 July 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 (6 July 2007).

Death

On 1 January 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swedan, Ahmed 1960s births 1998 United States embassy bombings 2009 deaths Assassinated al-Qaeda leaders Al-Qaeda leaders Deaths by American drone strikes in Pakistan FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Kenyan al-Qaeda members Kenyan expatriates in Pakistan People from Mombasa