But who was Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri? The man who has played cat-and-mouse with US intelligence since Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, will be killed in Kabul on Sunday, according to US authorities. For several years, the US authorities announced a reward of 25 million dollars to catch him “dead or alive”, writes The New York Times. Joked with friends and loved cinema Those who went to school with him in Cairo describe a lively and happy boy who liked to joke with friends, listen to music and who loved going to the cinema with his friends, writes Al Jazeera. He came from a well-to-do family that lived in a wealthy district of Cairo. His father was a renowned pharmacy professor, his grandfather was a respected imam in one of the most important mosques in Egypt, Al Azhar. – He didn’t come from the streets. But I don’t agree with those who say he came from an upper-class family, says Brynjar Lia, who herself has lived and studied in Cairo. Brynjar Lia is professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oslo. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB Lia is professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oslo. – The family did not live in luxury, but they had some country properties from which they received income. His background cannot be compared to Osama bin Laden’s, he came from a billionaire family in Saudi Arabia, says Lia. Arrested 15 years old Already as a 15-year-old, something happened that changed the young boy’s direction in life. Then he witnessed the execution of an Egyptian writer whom he had inspired. Sayyid Qutb was arrested by the authorities, accused of trying to overthrow the Egyptian regime. Ayman al-Zawahri was captivated by Qutb’s revolutionary ideas and allowed himself to be recruited by a militant Islamist group. The membership was discovered by the authorities and the 15-year-old was arrested. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed by US special forces. Photo: – / AFP After a short time, the still minor boy was released. Young Ayman decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and began studying medicine at the University of Cairo. Fellow students describe him as a jovial and outgoing student. – Although outwardly he was like the other students, I believe that al-Zawahiri was radicalized at a very young age, says Brynjar Lia. The assassination of Anwar Sadat Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat had concluded a peace agreement with arch-enemy Israel. During a military parade in 1981, he was assassinated and killed. Among the many arrested in the aftermath of the terrorist attack was the 30-year-old doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri. Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat was killed in 1981. Photo: HANDOUT / Reuters The court was unable to prove that he was directly involved in Sadat’s murder. Zawahiri was sentenced to three years behind bars for being in possession of weapons. – A completely different person came out of prison Al Jazeera has interviewed a doctor who studied with al-Zawahri and who has worked with him. – When he came out of prison, he was a completely different person than before he was arrested, says the doctor, who does not give his name to Al Jazeera. The fact that al-Zawahiri was radicalized during the three years in prison may have been the start of what would later lead him to the very top of Al Qaeda. Teaming up with Osama bin Laden After the years in prison, al-Zawahiri decided to leave Egypt. He traveled to Pakistan where he joined the Red Crescent, the country’s answer to the Red Cross. As a surgeon, he helped Afghan soldiers who needed medical treatment. At the time, Afghans were at war with military forces from the Soviet Union. In the border area between the two countries, he met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. – They should prove to complement each other, says Brynjar Lia. – Bin Laden was charismatic and connected to wealthy contacts in Saudi Arabia. Lia emphasizes that Osama bin Laden came from a billionaire family in Saudi Arabia and maintained contact with people who could contribute financially to Al Qaeda. Lia says that al-Zawahri was one of the leading figures in the jihadist group Egypt Islamic Jihad, which was constantly short of money. But bin Laden could help them with that. – Al-Zawahiri was far less charismatic, but a better strategist than bin Laden. Former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (left) and then deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri pictured in 2001. Now they are both dead. Photo: AP After he took over as leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1993, al-Zawahiri was actively involved in campaigns to overthrow the regime in his home country. The mastermind behind several terrorist attacks In 1995, there was an assassination attempt against President Hosni Mubarak when he visited the summit of the African Union in Ethiopia. Egyptian authorities responded with a crackdown on militant Islamists and other opposition movements in the country. Ayman al-Zawahiri responded by leading an attack on Egypt’s embassy in Islamabad in Pakistan that same year. Two cars full of explosives burst into the gate of the embassy, 16 lost their lives in the first major suicide operation in modern times. The form of action later became Al Qaeda’s hallmark. This was just the beginning. In Luxor in Egypt, 62 tourists were killed in 1997. Al-Zawahri is said to have been the mastermind behind it. Larger terrorist actions Brynjar Lia tells news that beyond the 1990s al-Zawahiri advocated larger and more “spectacular” terrorist actions. Al-Zawahiri believed that if they were to get young, radicalized jihadists on the team, then the actions would have to hit the US and other Western countries much harder. – Ayman al-Zawahiri wanted to inspire young militant Muslims all over the world, says Brynjar Lia. – Willing to humiliate the enemy Osama bin Laden is said to have been influenced by al-Zawahiri’s many ideas about more “spectacular” terrorist attacks. – We must have actions that humiliate the enemy, al-Zawahiri is said to have said, says Lia. The two entered into a kind of agreement in 1998. In the same year, together with several other Islamist groups, they issued a declaration declaring Americans worldwide as legitimate targets. – That led to Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad formally merging, says the professor. In the same year, they carried out two well-planned twin attacks targeting the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks happened simultaneously. Over 200 were killed and 5,000 injured in the two attacks. The attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001. Photo: Richard Drew / AP But it was not spectacular enough, it turned out. “The US is the head of the snake” Ayman al-Zawahiri and bin Laden agreed that a direct attack on the US would inspire young people to support the jihadists’ fight. He spoke of “the United States as the head of the serpent.” – The thinking was that a spectacular attack in the US would demonstrate the Americans’ vulnerability and lead to the recruitment of militant Muslims, says Lia. – It would humiliate the USA so much that it would weaken the USA’s will to use large military and financial resources to help its allies in the region. – In the long run, this would lead to the collapse of both Israel and authoritarian authoritarian regimes in the Arab world, says Lia. In June 2001, just three months before the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the United States, al-Zawahiri wrote about his ideas for a giant attack. Ayman al-Zawahiri is thus said to have contributed to the strategy behind the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001 together with Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces ten years later. In the largest attack directed at the United States since World War II, 3,000 people were killed. – The spectacular attacks from 1995 to 2001 led to Al Qaeda gaining a much higher status among militant Muslims, says Lia. – But for other moderate Islamic groups, Al Qaeda only became more feared and hated, says Lia. The mockery of IS The formation of IS and the events of 2011 with the Arab Spring have led Al Qaeda into a sort of valley of shadows. They do not attract the same media attention as in the past. Brynjar Lia says that brutal terrorist attacks against Muslims that IS is behind influenced Ayman al-Zawahiri. He tightened the rules for what could be legitimate targets of attack for Al Qaeda and expressed clearer criticism of actions and attacks in which civilians were killed. It was the attacks by IS in Iraq in particular that made him react. IS carried out a long series of massacres and terrorist attacks that affected civilians, both Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Yezidis and Christians. In al-Zawahari’s eyes, this type of attack did not have the desired military effect, he believed they took the focus away from the fight against the main enemy, namely the United States and its allies. Lia believes that in recent years al-Zawahiri tried to recruit young members to Al Qaeda by distancing himself more clearly from attacks that affected other Muslims. But his lack of charisma and ability to reach out to the young have stood in the way. In recent years, Ayman al-Zawahiri has been the subject of considerable ridicule and mockery, especially from jihadist circles that support IS. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Photo: – / AFP
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Ayman al-Zawahiri – who was the surgeon who became the world’s most wanted terrorist – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
