Saif al-Adel
Mohamed Salah al-Din al-Halim Zaidan (Arabic: محمد صلاح الدين الحليم زيدان; born April 11, 1960 or 1963), commonly known by his nom de guerre Saif al-Adel (Arabic: سيف العدل, lit. 'sword of justice'), is a former Egyptian Army officer and explosives expert who is widely understood to be the de facto leader of al-Qaeda.[8][9] Al-Adel fought the Soviets as an Afghan Arab before becoming a founding member of the al-Qaeda organization. He is a member of Al-Qaeda's Majlis al-Shura and has headed the organization's military committee since the death of Muhammad Atef in 2001.[10] He is currently known to live in Iran along with several other senior members of the group.[11][12][13]
Saif al-Adel
11 April 1960 or
11 April 1963[3]
Monufia Governorate, United Arab Republic[4] (now Egypt)
Asma
Abu Walid al-Masri
(father-in-law)
Rabiah Hutchinson
(mother-in-law)
Khaled Cheikho
(brother-in-law)
5
Egypt (1976–1987)
Maktab al-Khidamat (1988)
Al-Qaeda (1988–present)
1976–present
Once a colonel in Egypt's El-Sa'ka Forces during the 1980s,[14] the Egyptian military expelled Saif al-Adel in 1987 and arrested him alongside thousands of Islamists amid allegations of attempting to rebuild the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and plans to topple Hosni Mubarak. The charges were dismissed, though Saif soon left Egypt for Afghanistan, joining Afghan Arab mujahideen resisting the Soviet invasion under the banner of al-Qaeda forerunner Maktab al-Khidamat in 1988.[15][16] Saif would go on to become the chief of newly formed al-Qaeda's media department, and was involved in the production of Osama Bin Laden's videos which quickly found audiences worldwide.[15] By the early nineties, Saif is thought to have then traveled to southern Lebanon with Abu Talha al-Sudani, Saif al-Islam al-Masri, Abu Ja`far al-Masri, and Abu Salim al-Masri, where they trained alongside Hezbollah Al-Hejaz.[17] Sometime after, Saif became a member of the AQ Shura council, and by 1992 had become a member of its military committee, then headed by Muhammad Atef. He has provided military and intelligence training to members of al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan, and to anti-American Somali tribes.[18] Shifting to Khartoum in 1992, Saif taught militant recruits how to handle explosives.[19][20] It is possible that his trainees included Somalis who participated in the first Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.[21] Saif also established the al-Qaeda training facility at Ras Kamboni in Somalia near the Kenyan border.[22]
The 9/11 Commission Report states that in July 2001, three senior AQ Shura council members including al-Adel, Saeed al-Masri and Mahfouz Ould al-Walid opposed Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri's decision to execute the September 11 attacks.[23] Following the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan, Saif was given secret asylum in Iran during which he was monitored by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In 2015, al-Qaeda made a deal with the IRGC's Qods Force to return Saif to Afghanistan, though he reportedly refused, stating a preference for maintaining Iran as his base of activities.[24] Saif is currently under indictment in the United States, with charges related to his alleged role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.[18][25]
Before Zawahiri's assassination in 2022, Saif al-Adel had become the effective micro-manager of field commanders of AQ branches in Somalia, Yemen and Syria from his communication base in Iran.[26] A 2023 United Nations report concluded that Saif al-Adel had been named de-facto leader of al-Qaeda but that he had not been formally proclaimed as its emir due to "political sensitives" of the Taliban government in acknowledging the killing of Zawahiri in Kabul and the "theological and operational" challenges posed by location of al-Adel in Shia-led Iran.[27][28][29][30] With the death of Zawahiri, Saif al-Adel is one of al-Qaeda's few surviving founding members. Saif has been tightening his grip over the AQ branches, promoting a loyalist base of field commanders and increasing his influence in the group's branch in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP, while waiting to be officially declared emir. Saif has made attempts to shift AQ's central command to Yemen, a country where the group has long had a branch.[31]
Militant connections[edit]
Embassy bombings[edit]
Several months before the 1998 embassy bombings, Adel was helping Osama bin Laden move his followers from Najim Jihad to Tarnak Farms. The group had begrudgingly agreed to care for the troublesome Canadian 16-year-old, Abdurahman Khadr, since his father was away and his mother couldn't control his drinking, smoking and violent outbursts. However, while they were in Kabul, bin Laden asked Adel to take Abdurahman to the bus station and send him back to his family's home.[43]
In approximately 2000, Adel was living in the Karte Parwan district of Kabul. On the local walkie-talkie communications in the city, he was identified as #1.[43] On 9 September 2001, Adel was approached by Feroz Ali Abbasi, who said he was so impressed by the killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud that he wanted to volunteer for something similar.[44]
In February 2006, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point published a number of declassified documents from the Harmony database, some of which are known or believed to have been written by Saif al-Adel. One is a letter signed "Omar al-Sumali, previously known as Saif al-Adel", about the author's activities in southern Somalia during UNOSOM II (1993–1995). It identifies the southern town of Ras Kamboni as a suitable site for an al-Qaeda base.[22] It mentions an accomplice of Adel called "Mukhtar".[22]
In a letter[79][80] from "'Abd-al-Halim Adl'" to "'Mukhtar'", dated 13 June 2002, the author strongly criticises the leadership of Osama bin Laden, blaming the defeats of the preceding six months for al-Qaeda on bin Laden's recklessness and unwillingness to listen to advice:[79]
From the following section, the 2002 addressee, "'Mukhtar'" appears to be Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the commander of the September 11 attacks:
In 2004, Adel was alleged to be the author of The Al-Battar Military Camp, a manual that advised prospective militants about how to strike easy targets.[81]
On 11 March 2005, Al-Quds Al-Arabi published extracts from Adel's document, "Al Qaeda's Strategy to the Year 2020".[82] In his May 2005 correspondence to Deputy Emir Ayman al-Zawhiri, Saif al-Adel outlined the key pillars in Al-Qaeda's revolutionary strategy:[83]
March 2007, the Pentagon posted on the Internet a transcript[84] of part of the hearing into the combatant status of detainee Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Some of the evidence against bin al-Shibh came from a diary of Saif al-Adel found in Saudi Arabia in 2004.
The CSRT document described al-Adel by the following:[84]
In addition, the paragraph continued:[84]
In December 2010, Adel allegedly sent a series of five letters[85][86] to Abu Walid al Masri, then under house arrest in Iran. He discusses the War in Afghanistan, criticises the religious failings of the mujahideen and hypocrisy of Islamic scholars, and the failure of the Jihadist movement to learn from previous mistakes. Al Masri posted the letters on the Internet in December 2010. In March 2011, Adel allegedly released another five letters through al Masri,[87][88] which covered the Arab Spring uprisings.
In August 2015, a eulogy written by al-Adel for Abu Khalid al-Suri, an al-Qaeda veteran who served as both a senior figure in the Syrian opposition group Ahrar al-Sham and as Ayman al Zawahiri's representative in Syria, was released. In the eulogy he criticized the Islamic State and described them as having "twisted" and "perverted" thoughts.[73]
Personal life[edit]
He is married to the daughter of Mustafa Hamid; they have five children.[47]