Hours following the announcement of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri killedQuestions began to escalate over who would be his successor. According to CNN, American sources said that it is expected that the leadership of the organization will pass to the leader, Saif al-Adl.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a US strike in Afghanistan at the weekend, the biggest blow to the militant group since the death of its founder Osama bin Laden in 2011.
With the dawning of last Sunday in Kabul, an American drone flew in the Afghan capital, while Ayman al-Zawahiri was on the balcony of his house, and by a decision of Joe Biden and following a tracking operation that lasted for years, two missiles were fired, killing the leader of al-Qaeda.
A senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration said that al-Zawahiri had been in hiding for years, and that the process of locating and killing him was the result of “meticulous and tireless” work by the counterterrorism and intelligence community.
sword of justice
The second man in al-Qaeda
The second man in al-Qaeda, Mohammed Salah al-Din Zeidan, nicknamed “Saif al-Adl”, whose name topped the list of candidates for the succession of al-Zawahiri, is believed to be in Iran, according to United Nations reports.
An official US source told CNN that al-Zawahiri’s killing “raised a pressing issue for the Iranians, who now have to choose between expelling or harboring the new al-Qaeda leader.”
While a second source, a former Afghan government official with close knowledge of counter-terrorism, said he “heard that Saif al-Adl has already left Iran for Afghanistan.”
Who is Saif Al-Adl?
According to the information available regarding him, Mohamed Salah El-Din Zeidan was an officer in the Egyptian Special Forces who joined the Egyptian Jihad group in the eighties.
He was arrested in May 1987 in the case of “Reviving the Jihad Organization” for attempting to overthrow the regime in Egypt.
In 1989, he fled to Sudan and from there to Afghanistan to decide to join Al-Qaeda.
What is Washington accusing him of?
Washington accuses Saif al-Adl of establishing training camps in Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan and of being involved in the 1998 bombings of its embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
He also prepared some of the 9/11 hijackers, and appeared on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List.
Washington offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
After the US invasion of Afghanistan, he managed to escape to Iran, where he was placed under house arrest.
In 2010, Saif al-Adl succeeded in returning to Afghanistan and from there to Pakistan.
