Ayman al-Zawahiri
Following the execution, al-Zawahiri, along with four other secondary school students, helped form an "underground cell devoted to overthrowing the government and establishing an Islamist state."[42] In June 2012, one of al-Zawahiri's four wives, Umaima Hassan, released a statement on the internet congratulating the role played by Muslim women in the Arab Spring.[63] On October 10, 2001, al-Zawahiri appeared on the initial list of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by U.S. President George W. Bush.In early November 2001, the Taliban government announced they were bestowing official Afghan citizenship on him, as well as Bin Laden, Mohammed Atef, Saif al-Adl, and Shaykh Asim Abdulrahman.In Peshwar, al-Zawahiri was thought to have become radicalized by other Al-Jihad members, abandoning his old strategy of a swift coup d'état to change society from above, and embracing the idea of takfir.[70] British journalist Jason Burke wrote: "Al-Zawahiri ran his own operation during the Afghan war, bringing in and training volunteers from the Middle East.This computer was mainly used by al-Zawahiri and contained the fraudulent letter used to arrange the meeting between two al-Qaeda attackers posing as journalists and Ahmad Shah Massoud.[80] On April 30, 2009, the U.S. State Department reported that al-Zawahiri had emerged as al-Qaeda's operational and strategic commander,[81] and that Osama bin Laden was now only the ideological figurehead of the organization."[82] Following the death of bin Laden, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism Juan Zarate said that al-Zawahiri would "clearly assume the mantle of leadership" of al-Qaeda.[88] The delayed announcement led some analysts to speculate that there was quarreling within al-Qaeda: "It doesn't suggest a vast reservoir of accumulated goodwill for him," said one celebrity journalist on CNN.[91] According to US officials within the Obama administration and Robert Gates, al-Zawahiri would find the leadership difficult as, while intelligent, he lacks combat experience and the charisma of Osama bin Laden.According to Mohammed, in return for this information, the Iranian government paid al-Zawahiri $2 million and helped train members of al-Jihad in a coup attempt that never actually took place."[94] In April 2008, al-Zawahiri blamed Iranian state media and Al-Manar for perpetuating the "lie" that "there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no-one else did in history" in order to discredit the Al Qaeda network.[citation needed] On the seventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, al-Zawahiri released a 90-minute tape[96] in which he blasted "the guardian of Muslims in Tehran" for recognizing "the two hireling governments"[97] in Iraq and Afghanistan.[99] On December 1, 1996, Ahmad Salama Mabruk and Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi – both carrying false passports – accompanied al-Zawahiri on a trip to Chechnya, where they hoped to re-establish the faltering Jihad.The trio pleaded innocence, maintaining their disguise while other al-Jihad members from Bavari-C sent the Russian authorities pleas for leniency for their "merchant" colleagues who had been wrongly arrested.Jamestown Foundation scholar Evgenii Novikov has argued that it seems unlikely that the Russians would not have been able to determine who he was, given Russia's well-trained Arabists and the suspicious acts of Muslims crossing borders illegally with multiple Arabic false identities and encrypted documents.[111] Al-Zawahiri learned of a "Nonviolence Initiative" organized in Egypt to end the terror campaign that had killed hundreds and resulting government crackdown that had imprisoned thousands.[115] In December 2001, al-Zawahiri published a book entitled Fursan Taht Rayat al Nabi[116] (Knights Under the Prophet's Banner) which outlined ideologies of al-Qaeda.[118] ...The second power depends on God alone, then on its wide popularity and alliance with other jihad movements throughout the Islamic nation, from Chechnya in the north to Somalia in the south and from "Eastern Turkestan in the east to Morocco in the west.It demands the blood price for the martyrs, the mothers' grief, the deprived orphans, the suffering prisoners, and the torments of those who are tortured everywhere in the Islamic lands―from Turkistan in the east to Andalusia.[126] On January 13, 2006, the Central Intelligence Agency, aided by Pakistan's ISI, launched an airstrike on Damadola, a Pakistani village near the Afghan border where they believed al-Zawahiri was located.[128] On August 1, 2008, CBS News reported that it had obtained a copy of an intercepted letter dated July 29, 2008, from unnamed sources in Pakistan, which urgently requested a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri.The letter indicated that al-Zawahiri was critically injured in a US missile strike at Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan on July 28 that also reportedly killed al Qaeda explosives expert Abu Khabab al-Masri.[130] In two videos posted on Jihadist websites in 2012, al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to "capture" foreign citizens to leverage the release of Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[133][134] In September 2015, al-Zawahiri urged Islamic State (ISIL) to stop fighting al-Nusra Front, the official al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria,[135] and to unite with all other jihadists against the supposed alliance between America, Russia, Europe, Shiites and Iran, and Bashar al-Assad's Alawite regime.[138] al-Zawahiri endorsed "jihad to liberate every span of land of the Muslims that has been usurped and violated, from Kashgar to Andalusia, and from the Caucasus to Somalia and Central Africa".[148] Doğu Türkistan Bülteni Haber Ajansı reported that the Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party was praised by Abu Qatada along with Abdul Razzaq al Mahdi, Maqdisi, Muhaysini and al-Zawahiri.[178] Al-Zawahiri was killed on July 31, 2022, shortly after 6:00 a.m. local time in an early-morning drone strike conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the upscale Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul, reportedly in a house owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban government.[179][180][181] In a statement to reporters, a senior administration official said "over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al Qaeda target in Afghanistan.
Al-Zawahiri (disambiguation)Abu Fatima al-Jaheishial-QaedaOsama bin LadenSaif al-AdelEgyptian Islamic JihadMuhammad Abd al-Salam FarajKingdom of EgyptDrone strikeAlma materCairo UniversityEgyptian ArmySoviet–Afghan WarGlobal War on TerrorismWar in AfghanistanArabicromanizedpan-Islamisthis deathSeptember 11 attacksIslamistassassinationAnwar Sadatattack on the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistanin absentiaReturnees from Albania1998 U.S. embassy bombings2002 Bali bombingsbin Laden's deathkilled in a CIA drone strikeThe New York TimesSharqia34th Grand Imam of al-AzharKing Saud UniversitySaudi ArabiaPakistanAzzam PashaArab Leaguehouse of SaudMohammed bin Faisal Al SaudKing FaisalMuhammad al-Zawahirimedical oncologyNational Cancer Institute, Cairo UniversityAlbaniaTora PrisonIslamic JihadSupreme Council of the Armed Forcesinterim governmentgayyid giddanyouth activismSayyid QutbCompanions of the ProphetIslamic theologyIslamic historyunderground cellEgyptian governmentconspiracymissionjihadiNabilabullyingDown syndromeAbu ZubaydahwaterboardedAbu Turab Al-UrduniAfghanistanGardezwomen in the Arab SpringPeshawarRed CrescentAhmed KhadrJeddahland minesassassination of President Anwar SadatKhalid IslambouliMontasser el-ZayatEssam al-QamariEgyptian Interior MinisterAtef Sidqial-Gama'a al-Islamiyyaattack on the Egyptian embassy in IslamabadalienatedLal Masjid siegePakistan ArmyLal Masjid ("Red Mosque")IslamabadIslamic militantsAbdul Rashid GhaziAbdul Aziz GhazimadrasahBenazir BhuttoAhmad Salama MabrukMohammed SharafRewards for Justice Programtruck bombembassiesDar es SalaamNairobiUSS Cole bombingMohammed AtefFederal Bureau of InvestigationMost Wanted TerroristsGeorge W. BushTalibancitizenshipSaif al-AdlAsim AbdulrahmanradicalizedtakfirAbbud al-Zumarlife imprisonmentChief strategistBlack StandardmujahideenMaktab al-KhadamatPalestinianAbdullah Yusuf AzzamJason BurkeAli SoufanWorld Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusadersmilitary intelligenceZelimkhan Yandarbiyevinternational sanctionsAl-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions CommitteeSalafi-jihadist