Nairobi  - A suspected leading terrorist with links to the international al-Qaeda terrorist network managed to escape arrest in the Kenya capital over the weekend, The Standard newspaper reported Monday.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, thought to be a key figure in the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, returned to Kenya last week from Somalia, the report said, citing police sources.

He was in hiding in his house in the coastal village of Malindi and managed to flee just an hour before police arrived to arrest him, the report said.

The bombing of the US embassy in 1998 left 218 people dead.

In 2002, Islamic terrorists bombed a hotel in the coastal city of Mombasa which was popular with Israeli tourists, killing 12 people.

The newspaper said police arrested two of Mohammed's suspected accomplices and seized two of his forged passports.

It is believed he travelled from Somalia to Kenya for medical treatment. (dpa)