Odyssey of an Al Qaeda Operative

He moved to France in the early 1990s to study, but dropped out of school and became more devout as a Muslim, according to neighbors and relatives in Casablanca. When he returned to Morocco a few years later, he dressed in Afghan-style clothes and wore a long beard, a style that made him stand out in his family's cosmopolitan neighborhood, next to the city's old Jewish sector.

In the late 1990s, he caused a small stir in the neighborhood by loudly berating a young man who had put his arm around his girlfriend in public, neighbors recalled. When visitors came from out of town, he would insist that he and his bushy-bearded male friends sleep in cars on the street while the women stayed in his small two-room apartment.

"We thought, well, he's weird, but what can he possibly do?" said one neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he didn't want to antagonize Mejjati's friends or the Moroccan security services. "He was always with strange people, but not to the point where we were worried."

Mejjati married a Moroccan woman, with whom he had two sons, but the family rarely interacted with others. As his sons grew up, Mejjati increasingly spent his time traveling. One resident from his apartment building said he recalled seeing Mejjati only twice after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, though he never suspected that he might be involved in militant groups.

That changed after suicide bombers struck several targets in Casablanca in May 2003, including a Jewish community center not far from Mejjati's apartment. Shortly afterward, detectives began interrogating neighbors about Mejjati and set up a round-the-clock stakeout of the apartment building. Neighbors said the police shadowed Mejjati's wife whenever she left her home and kept up the surveillance until last month, when he was reported killed in Saudi Arabia.

Moroccan officials said they assumed that Mejjati had fled the country before the May 2003 attacks, but were unsure how much time he had spent in Morocco training the suicide bombers.

In an interview in March, Moroccan Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa said Mejjati was one of six suspects from the Casablanca bombings who remained at large. He said Mejjati was considered "a big fish," one of the top leaders in the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a local network that has become increasingly affiliated with al Qaeda.

U.S. Alert

After the attacks in Casablanca and Riyadh, counterterrorism officials in other countries became increasingly alarmed about Mejjati as well.

In September 2003, the FBI issued a worldwide bulletin warning the public to be on the lookout for Mejjati. The notice said he was "being sought for questioning in connection with possible threats against the United States." The FBI also confirmed that he had entered the country between 1997 and 1999.

A U.S. law enforcement agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mejjati entered the United States on at least two occasions during that period, with each stay lasting several months. What he did or where he went during that time is unclear, the official said.

"We frankly do not have a lot of information about him, and most of what we do have has come from interrogations," the official said. "We knew he had the proven ability to travel here, and that is what was a particular concern about him."

Other counterterrorism officials said Mejjati, who was fluent in English, could easily blend into Western societies. Neighbors in Casablanca said he spoke French better than Arabic, the native tongue for most Moroccans.