Digital Desk: Following a successful
drone attack in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the United States has
murdered Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The terrorist organisation has
suffered its greatest setback since the death of its founder Osama bin Laden in
2011. In a televised speech on Tuesday morning (India time), US President Joe
Biden declared that "justice has been delivered" and expressed the
hope that Zawahiri's demise will provide "closure" to the families of
the 3,000 Americans slain on 9/11. The commander of Al-Qaeda, who is one of the
most sought terrorists in the world, planned the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Zawahiri has
served as Al Qaeda's leader since taking over for bin Laden in 2011. In light
of Zawahiri's death, the terrorist organisation now confronts a serious
succession issue.
The next in line
to lead is Saif al-Adel, according to the Middle East Institute. According to
US intelligence sources, the former Egyptian army officer joined the
predecessor terrorist organisation Maktab al-Khidmat in the 1980s and later
became a founding member of Al Qaeda.
During this time,
he met bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and joined their organisation, Egyptian
Islamic Jihad (EIJ). In the 1980s, he also engaged in combat with Russian
forces in Afghanistan.
Saif al-Adel, who
formerly oversaw security for Osama Bin Laden, has been on the FBI's
most-wanted list since 2001; the reward for information leading to his capture
has now been raised to $10 million. Al-Adel is wanted in relation to
"conspiracy to kill United States citizens, to murder, to destroy
structures and property of the United States, and to destroy the national
defence Utilities of the United States," according to the agency's page on
him.
Since 1993, when Saif al-Adel was in
charge of the tragic "Black Hawk Down" incident, which resulted in
the deaths of 18 Americans, when US forces and helicopters were ambushed in
Mogadishu, Somalia, US forces have been searching for him. At the time, Al-Adel
was thirty.
Al-Adel has reportedly emerged as a
significant strategist following the murder of bin Laden, according to several
news outlets. Making him the leader of the terrorist organisation, according to
the Middle East Institute, will be challenging given his presence in Iran,
where he has been based ever since the "Black Hawk Down" incident.
The institute also noted that at least three al-Qaeda affiliates
are known to have questioned the veracity of Saif al-orders Adel's in recent
years.
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