Ayman al-Zawahiri

Ayman al-Zawahiri
أيمن الظواهري
Born	Ayman Muhammad Rabi' al-Zawahiri (1951-06-19)19 June 1951 Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
Died	31 July 2022(2022-07-31) (aged 71) Kabul, Afghanistan
Cause of death	Drone strike
Nationality	Egyptian
Education	Cairo University (MBBCh, 1974; MS, 1978)
Occupation	Surgeon jihadist Al-Qaeda leader
Years active	1980s–2022
Known for	Co-founder of Egyptian Islamic Jihad Deputy leader of al-Qaeda (1998–2011) Leader of al-Qaeda (2011–2022) Mastermind of the September 11 attacks
Spouse(s)	Azza Nowair (m. 1978; div. ?) Umaima Hassan
Children	7
Parent(s)	Rabi' al-Zawahiri (father) Um Nabila (mother)
Relatives	Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri (grandfather) Abd al-Rahman al-Azhar (great-uncle)
Military career
Allegiance	Egyptian Islamic Jihad (1980s–2001) Al-Qaeda (1988–2022)
Battles/wars	Soviet–Afghan War War on terror War in Afghanistan Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Ayman al-Zawahiri (Arabic: أيمن الظواهري; 19 June 1951 – 31 July 2022) was an Egyptian physician and jihadist who served as the leader of al-Qaeda from 2011 until his death in 2022. He was a co-founder and former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and served as Osama bin Laden's personal physician and deputy. A key ideologue of al-Qaeda, he was deeply involved in the planning of the September 11 attacks and was one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, with a US$25 million bounty on his head.

Early life and education

Ayman al-Zawahiri was born on 19 June 1951 in Maadi, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt. He was raised in a well-connected and affluent family with links to political, scholarly, religious, and royal elites. His father, Rabi' al-Zawahiri, was a professor of pharmacology, and his maternal grandfather was the president of Cairo University. His great-uncle, Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri, was the grand imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, one of the most important mosques in the Arab world.

As a student, al-Zawahiri was greatly influenced by the work of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian writer and a leading figure in modern Sunni Islamic revivalism. By age 15, he had established an underground cell dedicated to overthrowing the Egyptian government in favour of Islamic rule. He was arrested at 15 for his membership in the extremist Muslim Brotherhood group.

Al-Zawahiri followed in his father's footsteps and studied medicine at Cairo University, where he specialized in surgery. He graduated in 1974 and then served for three years as an army surgeon. He eventually earned a master's degree in surgery in 1978.

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Al-Zawahiri became involved with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) in the late 1970s. The EIJ was an outlawed organization that sought to overthrow the Egyptian government and was responsible for the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981. Al-Zawahiri was among hundreds of the group's members arrested in connection with Sadat's death. He was sentenced to three years in jail on weapons charges but was acquitted of involvement in the assassination. During his imprisonment, he was subjected to torture by intelligence officers, an experience that intensified his militancy.

After his release from prison in 1984, al-Zawahiri emerged as one of the top Islamist militants in Egypt. The following year, he travelled to Peshawar, Pakistan, and then to Afghanistan, taking part in the jihad against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He worked primarily as a surgeon, treating injured mujahideen fighters. It was during this time that he first met Osama bin Laden, with whom he became close. The two are said to have struck up a close relationship, having come from well-educated, wealthy families.

In the early 1990s, al-Zawahiri assumed leadership of the EIJ. He ultimately joined bin Laden in Sudan, which served as a base for the training of militants and for attacks on Egyptian targets. In 1996, he was detained in Russia for six months after attempting to recruit jihadists in Chechnya.

Al-Qaeda

Merger with EIJ

In 1998, al-Zawahiri's extremist faction, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, officially joined with al-Qaeda. He became a personal adviser and physician to bin Laden, and was seen as al-Qaeda's top lieutenant and right-hand man. In June 2001, the EIJ and al-Qaeda formally merged.

1998 fatwa

In February 1998, al-Zawahiri co-signed a fatwa with Osama bin Laden and others in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. The fatwa declared the killing of North Americans and their allies an "individual duty for every Muslim" to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the holy mosque in Mecca from their grip. He was one of five signatories to the fatwa.

Terrorist attacks

Al-Zawahiri had central roles in al-Qaeda's most significant attacks. He was indicted in the United States for his alleged role in the 7 August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. These embassy bombings killed 224 civilians and wounded about 5,000 others.

He was also believed to have plotted the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors and injured more than 30 others on 12 October 2000. He was considered by many to be the operational brains behind the September 11 attacks. The September 11 attacks were only possible because al-Zawahiri coordinated the precursor plot involving the assassination of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud two days before 9/11, which eliminated a key ally of the United States.

After 9/11 and leadership

After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, al-Zawahiri rebuilt al-Qaeda's leadership in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. He reshaped the group to become a decentralised operation, assembling networks of autonomous branches around the region. He was often seen as the face of the terrorist group, putting out constant streams of video messages while bin Laden was sheltered away. He also played a role in the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2005 transit bombings in London.

Al-Zawahiri became the leader of al-Qaeda in June 2011, following the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US special forces in Pakistan. He was widely regarded as al-Qaeda's de facto leader since bin Laden's death. During his decade as leader, al-Qaeda never fully recovered its prominence, as the aggressive Islamic State group took the lead in the jihadist movement, seizing large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. Analysts described Zawahiri's leadership as more of an advisory board than a coherent, centralized command, though they noted he was just as dangerous for the United States. He maintained allies with those, like the Taliban, who were turned off by Islamic State's tactics, which targeted fellow Muslims.

Ideology

Al-Zawahiri was driven by the belief that corrupt secular regimes in the Arab world ought to be replaced by regimes founded on Islamic Shari'a. He perceived the political world through a purely religious view. According to his worldview, a global jihad movement was necessary, and he expressed particular hostility and hatred for the State of Israel. He wrote over 70 statements, books, and other communiqués where he set out his vision for the Middle East. In a 2008 book, he rejected a series of "revisions" published by prominent jailed Islamist thinkers that renounced violence, writing that it "serves the interests of the Crusader-Zionist alliance with the Arab leaders to drug the mujahideen and drag them away from the confrontation."

Manhunt and evasion

Al-Zawahiri was on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list for years for the murder of US nationals outside the United States, conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the United States, and attacking a federal facility resulting in death. The US Department of State offered a reward of US$25 million for information that led to his apprehension or conviction. His whereabouts had been unknown for years, though he was rumoured to be in either Pakistan's tribal area or inside Afghanistan. There had been persistent rumours that he had died, but those were dispelled when a video released in April 2022 saw him praising an Indian Muslim woman for defying a ban on wearing a hijab.

Al-Zawahiri was a master of disguise who eluded capture for decades. He wore disguises and hid in caves and relied on a network of loyalists to stay alive. In 2014, he fled to Afghanistan as a result of "Operation Zarb-e-Azab" launched by Pakistan.

Death

Main article: Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri

On 31 July 2022, at 6:18 a.m. local time, al-Zawahiri was killed by a CIA drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was standing on the balcony of his safe house when an unmanned drone hovering in the skies over Kabul unleashed two Hellfire missiles in what US officials described as a "precise and calibrated strike." He was 71 years old.

US President Joe Biden announced the successful operation on 1 August 2022. He said: "Justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more. People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer." Biden confirmed that al-Zawahiri had moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his immediate family, and that no civilians or family members were harmed in the strike. The operation was authorized by Biden following weeks of meetings with his Cabinet and key advisers, and no American personnel were on the ground in Kabul at the time.

Senior Haqqani Taliban figures were aware of al-Zawahiri's presence in the area, in "clear violation of the Doha agreement," and even took steps to conceal his presence after the strike, restricting access to the safe house and rapidly relocating members of his family. The US did not alert Taliban officials ahead of the strike.

Personal life

Al-Zawahiri was married to Azza Nowair, with whom he had six children, including daughters Fatima and Umayma, and son Mohammed. He later married Umaima Hassan. He was fluent in English, French, and Arabic. He was identifiable by a prominent lump on his forehead, which was often visible in his video appearances.

Legacy

Al-Zawahiri's death was widely considered to be the biggest blow dealt to al-Qaeda since bin Laden's death 11 years earlier. However, some analysts noted that while al-Qaeda had not been able to replicate an assault like 9/11, that was also a "naive metric of success." The strike carried important political and symbolic implications for the Biden administration and substantive ramifications for US counterterrorism strategy. His death raised questions about the future direction of al-Qaeda and the broader jihadist movement.

See also

• Al-Qaeda
• Osama bin Laden
• September 11 attacks
• Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri
• Egyptian Islamic Jihad

External links

• FBI Most Wanted Terrorists: Ayman al-Zawahiri
• Remarks by President Biden on the Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri