Mohammed Atef

Mohammed Atef
محمد عاطف
Atef in Afghanistan on May 26, 1998
Nickname(s)
  • Al-Khabir[1]
  • Taysir Abdullah[2]
  • Abu Khadijah[2]
  • Abu Fatima[3]
Born1944[2][a]
Monufia Governorate, Egypt[2]
DiedNovember 14–16, 2001 (aged 56–57)[2]
Kabul, Afghanistan
Allegiance al-Qaeda
RankMilitary Commander
Battles / wars

Mohammed Atef (Arabic: محمد عاطف, romanized: Muḥammad ʿĀṭif; born Sobhi Abd Al Aziz Mohamed El Gohary Abu Sitta,[2][5] also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri and al-Khabir; 1944 – November 2001) was an Egyptian militant and prominent military chief of al-Qaeda, and a deputy of Osama bin Laden, although Atef's role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years.[2] He was killed in a US airstrike in November 2001.

Atef served two years in the Egyptian Air Force and became an agricultural engineer.[2][6] He was also a police officer and a member of the group Egyptian Islamic Jihad before he moved to Afghanistan to repel the Soviet invasion,[1] while operating from Peshawar.[7] He has been credited as having convinced Abdullah Azzam to abandon his life and devote himself to preaching jihad at this time.[7]

Atef was sent to an Afghan training camp where he met Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later introduced him to Osama bin Laden.[2]

He attended two meetings from August 11 to 20 in 1988, along with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, Jamal al-Fadl, Wa'el Hamza Julaidan, and Mohammed Loay Bayazid and eight others, to discuss the founding of "al-Qaeda".[8] Bin Laden later sent a letter to Mohammed Loay Bayazid informing him that Atef and Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri were to each be given 6,500 Saudi riyals monthly, the same as they had been given for their work in Maktab al-Khidamat.[9]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference reports was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cite error: The named reference guard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ United States v. Usama bin Laden, Transcript of Day 8
  4. ^ "Mohammed Atef". Counter Extremism Project.
  5. ^ "Security Council committee approves correction of identifying information of fifty-three individuals, ten entities on consolidated list". United Nations. 6 December 2004.
  6. ^ Potomac Books, Through Our Enemies Eyes, p. 95.
  7. ^ a b Raman, B. South Asia Analysis Group, "USA's Afghan Ops"[usurped], November 20, 2001
  8. ^ Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Tower, 2006. pp. 131-134
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference shay was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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