NEW YORK - Federal authorities charged on Thursday that the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya last month was orchestrated by an Islamic extremist from the island nation of Comoros who reported directly to Osama bin Laden , the Saudi exile who is the focus of the worldwide inquiry.[snip]
Broadening the case against bin Laden 's organization, the government offered a $2 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Haroun Fazil, who has been eluding authorities since a warrant was issued for his arrest late last month.
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Schiliro would not say where the authorities believe Fazil has fled, or how he may have left the Comoros islands, which are in the Indian Ocean southeast of Tanzania and Kenya. Earlier this month, the FBI and the Comoros police raided two homes in the Comoros capital city of Moroni, looking for Fazil, and also questioned his wife.
The authorities described Fazil as an explosives expert in his mid-20s who speaks fluent French, Swahili, Arabic and English, and is adept with computers.
Although the federal complaint did not describe precisely Fazil's rank in bin Laden 's organization, it suggested that his role in the Nairobi attack was more significant than any of the three other defendants who have been arrested and are being held in Manhattan.
The federal complaint said that Fazil's duties in the terrorist organization included the preparation of various reports for bin Laden and his top lieutenants. In the Kenyan bombing, Fazil was accused of renting the room in the Hilltop Hotel in Nairobi where investigators believe that the bomb was constructed, and of hiring two people to clean the room after the attack.
On the day of the attack, the government said, Fazil drove a white pickup that led another vehicle, which was carrying the bomb, to the embassy site in Nairobi.