A major Al Qaeda leader thought to be the mastermind of the terror attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania has reportedly been killed in Somalia.

A senior al Qaeda operative behind the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania is believed to have been killed during a raid by covert forces in southern Somalia.

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and another person are thought to have been killed in the southern town of Barawe during a raid by what is thought to be French commandos. Nabhan’s death has not been confirmed, however.

Witnesses said foreign troops swept into the town on helicopters, killed Nabhan and another terrorist, and captured two others after wounding them, Mareeg reported. Some of the commandos were thought to have had uniforms with French markings.

The weak Transitional Federal Government does not own helicopters. The French have denied conducting such a raid. Another possibility is that the raid was carried out by US special operations forces under the task force assigned to hunt al Qaeda operatives across the globe.