Saif al-Adel

Saif al-Adel
سيف العدل‎
al-Adel in 2000
de facto General Emir of al-Qaeda[note 1]
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 August 2022
Preceded byAyman al-Zawahiri[note 2]
Personal details
Born
Mohamed Salah al-Din al-Halim Zaidan[2]

(1960-04-11) 11 April 1960 (age 64) or
(1963-04-11) 11 April 1963 (age 61)[3]
Monufia Governorate, United Arab Republic[4] (now Egypt)
SpouseAsma
RelationsAbu Walid al-Masri
(father-in-law)
Rabiah Hutchinson
(mother-in-law)
Khaled Cheikho
(brother-in-law)
Children5
Other names
  • Ibrahim al-Madani[3]
  • Muhammad Ibrahim al-Makkawi (alleged pseudonym)[5][6]
  • Omar al-Sumali
  • Salim al-Sharif[7]
Military career
Allegiance Egypt (1976–1987)
Maktab al-Khidamat (1988)
Al-Qaeda (1988–present)
Years of service1976–present
RankColonel (before 1988)
Emir (de facto) (2022–present)
Battles / wars

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 the de facto leader of al-Qaeda.[1][8] 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.[9] He is currently known to live in Iran along with several other senior members of the group.[1][8][10]

Once a colonel in Egypt's El-Sa'ka Forces during the 1980s,[11] 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.[12][11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14] Shifting to Khartoum in 1992, Saif taught militant recruits how to handle explosives.[15][11] It is possible that his trainees included Somalis who participated in the first Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.[16] Saif also established the al-Qaeda training facility at Ras Kamboni in Somalia near the Kenyan border.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19] 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.[14][5]

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.[19] 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.[20][21][22][23] 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.[19]

  1. ^ a b c Lederer, Edith M. (14 February 2023). "Who is Al Qaeda's new leader? U.N. experts say it's widely believed to be this man". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference zaidan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference fbiAdel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Bombing of U.S. Embassies (Kenya and Tanzania | August 7, 1998) | Rewards For Justice". rewardsforjustice.net. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Sayf al-Adl". Archived from the original on 28 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Welcome to fbi.gov — FBI".
  7. ^ "Al Qaeda leader calls foreign fighters to Afghanistan | FDD's Long War Journal". www.longwarjournal.org.
  8. ^ a b "US says Iran-based Saif al-Adel is new al Qaeda chief". Al-Monitor. 15 February 2023. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023.
  9. ^ "Saif al-Adel". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023.
  10. ^ "Al-Qaeda's new military chief". 2001-12-19. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  11. ^ a b c "Saif al- Adel" (PDF). CTC. 2011. pp. 1, 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2022.
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference bbc2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Hegghammer, Thomas (February 2008). "Deconstructing the myth about al-Qaida and Khobar" (PDF). CTC Sentinel. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-07-03. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  14. ^ a b Copy of indictment Archived 2001-11-10 at the Library of Congress Web Archives USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
  15. ^ Jamal al-Fadl testimony, United States vs. Osama bin Laden et al., trial transcript, Day 2, February 6, 2001.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbcAdel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference raskamboni was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ 9/11 Commission, p. 251
  19. ^ a b c Radman, al-Sabri, Hussam, Assim (28 February 2023). "Leadership from Iran: How Al-Qaeda in Yemen Fell Under the Sway of Saif al-Adel". Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies. Archived from the original on 6 March 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ "Militant in Iran identified as al-Qaeda's probable new chief in U.N. report". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  21. ^ Analysis by Tim Lister (2 August 2022). "Al Qaeda needs a new leader after Zawahiri's killing. Its bench is thinner than it once was". CNN. Archived from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  22. ^ Bunzel, Cole (2022-08-03). "Al Qaeda's Next Move:What Zawahiri's Death Means For Jihadism". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  23. ^ Burke, Jason (14 February 2023). "Extremist thought to be in Iran is de facto new leader of al-Qaida, UN says". The Guardian.


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