WASHINGTON: Saif al-Adelan Egyptian living in Iran, became the head of al-Qaida following the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri in July 2022, the US State Department said Wednesday.
“Our assessment is in line with the United Nations’ assessment that the new de facto leader of al-Qaeda, Saif al-Adel, is based in Iran,” a State Department spokesman said.
The UN report released on Tuesday said the predominant view among member states is that Adel is now the group’s leader, “representing continuity for now”.
But the group has not formally declared him an “emir” out of sensitivity to the concerns of Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, who declined to acknowledge that Zawahiri was killed by a US rocket in a house in Kabul last year, according to the UN report. .
Furthermore, the UN report said, Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda is sensitive to the issue of Adel’s residency in largely Shiite Iran.
“His stance raises questions having to do with al-Qaeda’s ambitions to assert leadership of a global movement in the face of ISIS challenges,” the UN report said, referring to another name for the group. rival of the Islamic State.
Adel, 62, is a former lieutenant colonel in Egypt’s special forces and a figure in al-Qaeda’s old guard.
He helped build the group’s operational capability and trained some of the hijackers who took part in the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, according to the US Counter Extremism Project.
He has been in Iran since 2002 or 2003, first under house arrest but then free enough to travel to Pakistan, according to Ali Soufan, a former FBI counterterrorism investigator.
“Saif is one of the most experienced professional soldiers in the global jihadist movement and his body bears the scars of battle,” Soufan wrote in a 2021 article for the West Point Combating Terrorism Center’s CTC Journal.
“When he acts, he does it with ruthless efficiency,” he said.
“Our assessment is in line with the United Nations’ assessment that the new de facto leader of al-Qaeda, Saif al-Adel, is based in Iran,” a State Department spokesman said.
The UN report released on Tuesday said the predominant view among member states is that Adel is now the group’s leader, “representing continuity for now”.
But the group has not formally declared him an “emir” out of sensitivity to the concerns of Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, who declined to acknowledge that Zawahiri was killed by a US rocket in a house in Kabul last year, according to the UN report. .
Furthermore, the UN report said, Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda is sensitive to the issue of Adel’s residency in largely Shiite Iran.
“His stance raises questions having to do with al-Qaeda’s ambitions to assert leadership of a global movement in the face of ISIS challenges,” the UN report said, referring to another name for the group. rival of the Islamic State.
Adel, 62, is a former lieutenant colonel in Egypt’s special forces and a figure in al-Qaeda’s old guard.
He helped build the group’s operational capability and trained some of the hijackers who took part in the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, according to the US Counter Extremism Project.
He has been in Iran since 2002 or 2003, first under house arrest but then free enough to travel to Pakistan, according to Ali Soufan, a former FBI counterterrorism investigator.
“Saif is one of the most experienced professional soldiers in the global jihadist movement and his body bears the scars of battle,” Soufan wrote in a 2021 article for the West Point Combating Terrorism Center’s CTC Journal.
“When he acts, he does it with ruthless efficiency,” he said.
