Nairobi,(insidesomalia.org)- There is a manhunt under way in Kenya for an al-Qaeda operative wanted for the attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 10 years ago.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed allegedly evaded a police raid at the weekend in the coastal town of Malindi, where he was being hosted by friends.

Earlier this year Mr Mohammed, who is from the Comoros Islands, survived a US missile attack on a hideout in Somalia

The United States has offered a reward of up to $5m (£2.5m) for his arrest.

Police are interrogating three members of a family who were hosting him in Malindi.

More than 250 people were killed during the bomb attack on the US embassy 10 years which Mr Mohammed allegedly planned.

Intensified patrols

The BBC's Odhiambo Joseph in Mombasa says police and naval have been intensified at the coast after the failed arrest bid at the weekend.

Reports say Mr Mohammed gained entry to Kenya through Lamu Island which borders Somalia to seek treatment for a kidney ailment, our correspondent says.

Mr Mohammed allegedly leads the al-Qaeda cell in East Africa from a base in lawless Somalia.

The US accused the Islamist group that ruled much of southern Somalia in 2006 of harbouring al-Qaeda suspects - charges they denied.

Mr Mohammed joined al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden, the terror network's leader, according to the transcript of an FBI interrogation of a known associate.

As well as the embassy bombings, he is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and a near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli aircraft in 2002.