Al Qaeda’s new ‘Sword of Justice’ leader: ‘Ruthless’ ex-Egyptian special forces officer who trained 9/11 hijackers has taken over as terror group’s ‘uncontested’ boss, says UN
- Terror mastermind who named himself ‘Sword of Justice’ is now al-Qaeda’s chief
- Al-Adel is a mainstay of the FBI Most Wanted list, with a $10million info reward
- He oversaw notorious 1993 ‘Black Hawk Down’ operation and the 9/11 attacks
Seif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer and mastermind of several notorious terror attacks, is now the ‘uncontested’ leader of the militant group al-Qaeda, a new U.N. report has claimed.
Al-Qaeda has not officially named a successor for former leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in Kabul last year – the biggest blow to the organisation since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.
But a new U.N. report assessing risks from the group published on Tuesday said: ‘Many Member States took the view that Seif al-Adel is already operating as the de facto and uncontested leader of the group.’
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said: ‘Our assessment aligns with that of the UN – that al-Qaeda’s new de facto leader Saif al-Adel is based in Iran.’
Al-Qaeda has not formally declared Adel their ’emir’ because of sensitivity to the concerns of the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, who haven’t wanted to acknowledge that Zawahiri was killed by a U.S. strike, according to the U.N. report.
The U.S. has now placed a $10million bounty on Adel, who has long been a mainstay on the FBI’s most wanted list.
His real name is Mohammed Salahuddin Zeidan – Seid al-Adel is a made-up moniker that translates to ‘Sword of Justice’.
Adel has long been a mainstay on the FBI’s most wanted lists
Saif al-Adel is seen in these undated handout images. He is believed to be the new leader of al-Qaeda
Unlike his slain predecessors who maintained a high profile with fiery videos broadcast around the globe threatening the United States, experts say Adel planned attacks from the shadows as he helped turn al-Qaeda into the world’s deadliest militant group.
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Adel, 62, was indicted and charged in November 1998 by a U.S. federal grand jury for his role in the bomb attacks on the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 civilians and wounded more than 5,000 others.
Beyond the operations in Africa, his training camps and link to the killing of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002, according to U.S. investigators, little else is known about Adel and there are few photos of him.
But he has been linked to the 1993 ambush of U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu known as the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident which killed 18 U.S. servicemen and marked the beginning of the U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force’s withdrawal from Somalia.
Adel was also instrumental in the planning of the ‘Planes Operation’ – the name used by al-Qaeda for the Twin Towers terror attack on September 11, 2001 which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 and triggered America’s war on terror.
The U.S. State Department says Adel is based in Iran. The department’s Rewards for Justice programme is offering up to $10million for information on Adel, whom it says is a member of ‘al-Qaeda’s leadership council’ and heads the organisation’s military committee.
The programme’s website says that after the Africa bombings, the former Egyptian army lieutenant colonel moved to southeastern Iran, where he lived under the protection of the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He and other al-Qaeda leaders were placed under house arrest in April 2003 by Iran, which released him and four others in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in Yemen.
Al-Adel is pictured (centre) on an al-Qaeda who’s who published in 2005. Osama bin Laden is pictured top-left, with al-Zawahiri to his right and Mullah Omar to the right of al-Zawahiri. Saif is now one of the only original al-Qaeda leaders still alive
Adel was one of the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks. FILE PHOTO: Fiery blasts rock the south tower of the World Trade Center as the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the building September 11, 2001 in New York City
Adel was also behind the ambush of U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. Crash site of Black Hawk helicopter ‘Super 64’ is seen in this image from October 20, 1993
Ali Soufan, a former FBI special agent who tracked al-Qaeda operatives, wrote in a profile carried by the Combating Terrorism Center that the militant whose nom de guerre means ‘sword of justice’, has been described as a shrewd figure with a poker face.
‘Yet his temper, too, has become notorious. Possessed of a ‘caustic tongue’, he is apt to threaten violence against anyone who displeases him, and is known to meet disloyalty with swift and ruthless force,’ wrote Soufan.
‘Toward underlings he can be contemptuous, even brutal, in the heat of the moment. But he has also been known as a font of avuncular advice. In happier times, he showed a talent for soccer and a penchant for practical jokes.’
Once Osama bin Laden’s chief bodyguard and a senior trainer of militants, experts on the jihadi movement say Adel began his long bloody career in 1981, when he was suspected of involvement in the assassination by Islamist soldiers of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat during a military parade in Cairo that was broadcast on television.
‘Seif al-Adel’s professional military background and valuable experience as the head of al Qeada’s military committee prior to 9/l1 mean he has strong credentials to assume the overall leadership of al-Qaeda,’ said Elisabeth Kendall, a jihad expert at Oxford University.
He takes over an al-Qaeda that has become highly decentralised since the group carried out its most spectacular operation – the Twin Towers attacks.
Former Egyptian special forces operator Adel has taken over from compatriot Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed in a U.S. strike last year
Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his then-adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri
Adel, one of the few remaining al-Qaeda old guard, has been close to the central command for decades, experts say.
He would be tasked with providing strategic guidance to far-flung franchises in the Middle East, Africa and Asia that run their own day to day affairs, they added.
Some question though whether Adel can become an effective manager of the organisation after spending most of his career as an operative and trainer in militant camps.
‘Many insiders argue that he had an important operational role in the past, but that he is not equipped for leadership,’ said Jerome Drevon, senior analyst on Jihad and Modern Conflict at the International Crisis Group.
‘His skills are more suitable for the organisation of armed operations than the administration of a wide network of affiliates.’
One of al-Qaeda’s leading military chiefs and often called by experts its third-ranking official, Adel set up training camps for the organisation in Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1990s.
The FBI identifies Adel as one of its most wanted terrorists and accuses him of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, to murder and destroy buildings of the United States.
Adel gained more jihadi credentials after he joined other Arab militants fighting Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan, where he eventually headed a training camp before becoming a senior figure in al-Qaeda.
‘He (Adel) is a very bold, professional, cold-blooded figure,’ said Yoram Schweitzer, head of the Programme on Terrorism and Low-Intensity Conflict at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies.
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