MOGADISHU, Somalia — A Kenyan man blinded in an al-Qaida attack on a U.S. Embassy 13 years ago said Sunday he welcomed news of the death of the mastermind who planned the blasts in Kenya and Tanzania, as Somalis said they hoped his death in their war-torn country would bring peace.

Somali officials announced Saturday that their soldiers killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed at a checkpoint in the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday.

The death of Mohammed — a man who topped the FBI’s most wanted list for nearly 13 years for planning the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings in Kenya and Tanzania — is the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month.

Mohammed had been on the run for more than a decade with a $5 million bounty on his head.

Douglas Sidialo, who was blinded by the bombing in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, said he welcomed the news.

“God the creator has delivered Fazul Abdullah Mohammed to his destiny the same way he delivered bin Laden to his destiny,” he said. “When you kill by the sword, bullets and bombs you die through a similar tragedy.”

Thousands were wounded when a pickup truck rigged as a bomb exploded outside the four-story U.S. Embassy building. Within minutes, another bomb shattered the U.S. mission in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.