Washington: Iran-based Egyptian Saif al-Adel has become the head of Al-Qaeda following the July 2022 death of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the US State Department said.
“Our assessment aligns with that of the UN — that al-Qaeda’s new de facto leader Saif al-Adel is based in Iran,” a state department spokesperson said following the United Nations report which said that Saif al-Adel is now the group’s leader, “representing continuity for now.”
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- Al-Qaeda has not formally declared him as the head amid concerns of the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.
- Ayman al-Zawahiri, the previous head, was killed by a US rocket in a home in Kabul last year, according to the UN report.
- The UN report said that Al-Qaeda is sensitive to the issue of Saif al-Adel residing in Iran. “His location raises questions that have a bearing on Al-Qaeda’s ambitions to assert leadership of a global movement in the face of challenges from ISIL,” the UN report said.
- Saif al-Adel, 62, is a former Egyptian special forces lieutenant-colonel and figure in the old guard of Al-Qaeda.
- Saif al-Adel helped build the group’s operational capacity and trained some of the hijackers who took part in the September 11, 2001 attack.
- Saif al-Adel has been in Iran since 2002 or 2003, at first under house arrest but later made trips to Pakistan, AFP reported.
(With Inputs From AFP)