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Fugitive Charged in Kenya Blast

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<i> From Times Wire Services</i>

The U.S. government offered a $2-million reward for a fugitive charged with killing 12 Americans by helping plan the U.S. Embassy bombing in Kenya.

The fugitive, identified as Haroun Fazil, is the third suspect charged publicly in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in the Aug. 7 bombing that killed more than 250 people, including the 12 Americans.

U.S. Atty. Mary Jo White said at a New York news conference that Fazil, believed to be in his mid-20s, rented a Nairobi villa in May where the bomb was built. Fazil, trained in Afghanistan to use explosives, also monitored the embassy before the bombing and drove a white pickup truck that led a bomb-laden vehicle to the embassy, White said.

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U.S. authorities also detained a Dallas-area resident Thursday who once served as a personal secretary to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

Wadih Hage--who allegedly lived in Sudan until 1994 with Bin Laden, suspected by U.S. officials in the Nairobi blast and a simultaneous attack on the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania--was charged with lying to the FBI last month when he claimed he did not know Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, another suspect who has been charged in the Nairobi bombing.

Hage, described Thursday by officials as a father of seven children who works in a Fort Worth, Texas, tire store, was ordered held without bail after his arraignment Thursday in New York. Prosecutors said they expect to file more charges against him. He was subpoenaed Tuesday and was arrested Wednesday.

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