"traveling in the car. A US intelligence official and al-Qaeda later confirmed that al-Masri had been killed in the strike. Abu Khayr al-Masri Abdullah Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Rajab Abd al-Rahman (), known as Ahmad Hasan Abu al-Khayr al-Masri (), (3 November 1957 – 26 February 2017) was an Egyptian al-Qaeda leader who has been described as the general deputy to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Masri was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad alongside Ayman al-Zawahiri and fled the country in the mid-1980s along with many other Islamic militants. He joined the mujahideen in the Bosnian War (1992–1995). He was sentenced"
"to Ayman al Zawahiri for his eminence as the sheikh of the modern mujahedeen, according to them. Within the past three years, the group has assisted al-Qaeda in toppling the Syrian Revolutionaries Front and the Hazzm Movement, two key Western-backed rebel organizations in Syria, as well as weaken a third called Division 13. Some sources believe that the original rift from al-Nusra Front was part of a Qatar-led effort to rebrand al-Nusra Front, and provide it with new support, a move that could increase external aid for the terrorist group. Another analysis of Jund al Aqsa's rift and reunification states"
"of the Levant""). During the renaming announcement in July 2016, al-Julani thanked al-Qaeda leaders Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Khayr al-Masri. Ahmad Salama Mabruk, an associate of al-Zawahiri, sat alongside al-Julani during the announcement. Despite the group re-branding and announcing no external affiliations, the United States Central Command continued to consider it to be a branch of al-Qaeda and ""an organization to be concerned about"". Al-Jazeera journalist Sharif Nashashibi noted that immediately after the rebranding, both the US and Russia called it ""cosmetic"" and promised that air strikes would continue"" against al-Nusra. Journalist Robin Wright described the rebranding as an ""jihadi"
"a United States special forces military unit. Ayman al-Zawahiri was the second and last ""emir"" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. In 1998 al-Zawahiri formally merged Egyptian Islamic Jihad into bin Laden's organization. He is often described as a ""lieutenant"" to Osama bin Laden, though bin Laden's chosen biographer has referred to him as the ""real brains"" of al-Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahiri is believed to be hiding in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas by some analysts while other observers believe he might be hiding in major urban areas in Pakistan or elsewhere. From 1996 to 2001 Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri became"
"became a “classic manifesto of the terrorist wing of Islamic fundamentalism”, according to ""The New York Times""""."" Qutb also served as an inspiration to bin Laden’s successor and current leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who has frequently quoted Qutb in his own writings. The Egyptian government designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in December 2013. As of February 2017, the Trump administration was considering whether to designate the Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, stemming from the group’s long history with violence. The group has links to terrorist actors and organizations including its Palestinian branch, Hamas, as well as"
"its continued loyalty to Ayman al Zawahiri for his eminence as the sheikh of the modern mujahedeen, according to them. Within the past three years, the group has assisted al-Qaeda in toppling the Syrian Revolutionaries Front and the Hazzm Movement, two key Western-backed rebel organizations in Syria, as well as weaken a third called Division 13. Some sources believe that the original rift from al-Nusra Front was part of a Qatar-led effort to rebrand al-Nusra Front, and provide it with new support, a move that could increase external aid for the terrorist group. Another analysis of Jund al Aqsa's rift"
"Action Committee of Islamic Jihad, which organized terrorist operations. However, after the Egyptian popular uprising in the spring of 2011, on March 17, 2011, he was released from prison by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the interim government of Egypt. His lawyer said he had been held to extract information about his brother Ayman. However, on March 20, 2011, he was re-arrested. On August 17, 2013, Egyptian authorities arrested Muhammad al-Zawahiri at his home in Giza. Ayman al-Zawahiri was reportedly a studious youth. Ayman excelled in school, loved poetry, and ""hated violent sports"" — which he thought were"
"general, and Muhammad Musa al-Amri is its president. The descent of a group of Yemeni Salafis in the political arena was officially announced in a three-day conference in March 2012. According to Abd al Wahhab al-Humayqani, then secretary general of the preparatory committee and later secretary-general of the party, al-Rashad would “contribute to the nation's awakening in line with developments being witnessed by Yemen and Arab region in light of the Arab Spring.” In fact, the revolutionary uprising of March 2011 in Yemen and the brutal repression of the peaceful demonstrations by Saleh's government triggered significant changes in the country's"
"that Humayqani appeared as a guest on Qatar's Al Jazeera Arabic news network to comment on the foundation of UN-brokered talks in Geneva. Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Humayqani Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Humayqani (عبد الوهاب الحميقاني) (born 1972) is a Yemeni politician. He is the Secretary General of the Al-Rashad Union, the first Yemeni Salafi political party established in March 2012. He is also a founding member of Alkarama, a Swiss-based independent human rights NGO with alleged links to terrorist organizations. The United States Department of the Treasury has designated Humayqani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, accusing"
"Montasser el-Zayat Montasser el-Zayat () or Muntasir al-Zayyat ( """") (born 1956) is an Egyptian lawyer and author whose former clients, according to press reports, included Ayman al-Zawahiri, since 2011 the leader of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization, and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. Following the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat, as a young man, el-Zayat was one of the hundreds of politically active Egyptians who were rounded up. He was detained for three years although he was never tried or convicted. Montasser al-Zayat was born in 1956 in Egypt and educated there. His family is of Nubian descent. As a young man of"
"field. On 3 November 2007, al-Zawahiri claimed in a 28-minute recording posted on an Islamic website that ""... members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group announce that they are joining the al-Qaeda group ..."" According to Al Jazeera, Abu al-Laith appeared to be the leader of the new Libyan wing. Fighting Islamic Group first announced its presence in 1995, vowing to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader. In 2001, the group was added to a UN list of individuals and institutions ""belonging to, or associated with, al-Qaeda"". Abdelhakim Belhadj, a prominent rebel commander during the 2011 Libyan civil war, in"
"include Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in 2012; Naguib Sawiris, CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding and Founding Member of the Free Egyptians Party (Al Masreyeen Al Aharrar), a political party founded in the wake of the Arab Spring in 2011; George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC and Founder and Chairman of the Open Society Institute in 2010; Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization in 2009; His Excellency Cheng Siwei, former Vice-Chairman of the 9th and 10th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the Republic of China and Chairman of the"
"Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Humayqani Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Humayqani (عبد الوهاب الحميقاني) (born 1972) is a Yemeni politician. He is the Secretary General of the Al-Rashad Union, the first Yemeni Salafi political party established in March 2012. He is also a founding member of Alkarama, a Swiss-based independent human rights NGO with alleged links to terrorist organizations. The United States Department of the Treasury has designated Humayqani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, accusing him of having served as a recruiter and financier for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and having orchestrated a car bombing in"
"environmentally friendly messages as an attempt to deceive public opinion and to distract from the Taliban's ""crimes and destruction"". On February 9, 2012, Mukhtar Abu al-Zubair ""Godane"" announced in a fifteen-minute video message that al-Shabaab would be joining the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda, under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Zubair stated, ""On behalf of the soldiers and the commanders in al-Shabaab, we pledge allegiance to you. So lead us to the path of jihad and martyrdom that was drawn by our imam, the martyr Osama."" Al-Zawahiri approved and welcomed al-Shabaab as al-Qaeda's Somalia-based affiliate in a 15-minute video response, stating"
"on the 16 August 2016. Neither the Philippines nor the Indonesian branch offices of IIRO have ever been prosecuted by the Philippines or Indonesian authorities. Another country where IIRO is alleged to have aided and abetted bringing in foreign terrorists was the former Communist country of Albania. In 1992, with the support of the government of Sali Berisha ""turned to Saudi Arabia for financial support"". Among the thirty Islamic NGOs and Islamic associations worked toward re-Islamization Albania was the IIRO. Muhammad al Zawahiri, (the brother of Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement and Osama Bin"
"rejected HTS's turn away from Salafi-jihadist positions. The move was interpreted as an attempt to re-establish as a more pragmatic, pan-Sunni group, with a more civilian structure. al-Qaida leader Aymen Zawahiri denounced this turn. HTS announced Abu Jaber's resignation as the group’s leader on 1 October 2017. He was succeeded by Nusra Front founder Abu-Muhammad al-Julani, who had already been the de facto military commander. On 1 October 2017, the ibn Taymiyyah Battalions based in the town of Darat Izza defected from Tahrir al-Sham. In October 2017, Russia claimed to have injured Abu Mohammed al-Joulani in an air raid; HTS"
"was until the time of his February 2014 death, by an ISIS suicide car bomb attack, helping to lead Ahrar al-Sham which allowed Ayman Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, to influence the rebel group's actions despite the group officially having no affiliation with al-Qaeda. In 2015, Ahrar al-Sham, ""whose late leader fought alongside Osama bin Laden,"" again denied having any links to al-Qaeda and in May 2016, the U.S., Britain, France, and Ukraine blocked a Russian proposal to the United Nations to blacklist Ahrar al-Sham as a terrorist group. The group was openly allied with its longterm partner al-Nusra Front"
"operatives in Al Bayda during 2016, and a further strike on January 21, 2017. The International Crisis Group reported in February 2017 that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ""is stronger than it has ever been"" and is ""thriving in an environment of state collapse, growing sectarianism, shifting alliances, security vacuums and a burgeoning war economy"" brought on by Yemen's Civil War. In 2011, AQAP created Ansar Al-Sharia (AAS), a Yemen-based affiliate focused on waging an insurgency rather than international attacks on the West. In the view of the International Crisis Group, AQAP is ""an internally diverse organisation with varying layers"
"Tawakkol Karman Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman ( ""Tawakkul 'Abd us-Salām Khalid Karmān""; also Romanized ""Tawakul"", ""Tawakel"") (born 7 February 1979) is a Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist. She leads the group ""Women Journalists Without Chains,"" which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that is part of the Arab Spring uprisings. In 2011, she was reportedly called the ""Iron Woman"" and ""Mother of the Revolution"" by some Yemenis. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman"
"for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa in October 2011. While part of MUJWA/MUJAO, he was one of its most senior leaders, serving on its shura council and communicating with international media as MUJWA’s spokesman. By 2013, he was calling himself the leader of an organisation named the Mujahideen Shura Council in Gao, Mali. After MUJAO merged with Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Al-Mulathameen group in August 2013 to form Al-Mourabitoun, he was an important leader in Al-Murabitoun, later becoming its overall head. On May 13, 2015, Abu Walid declared his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq"
"by al-Qaeda's takfir and its killing of Muslims in Muslim countries, especially in Iraq. Noman Benotman, a former Afghan Arab and a militant member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), went public with an open letter of criticism to Ayman al-Zawahiri in November 2007, after persuading the imprisoned senior leaders of his former group to enter into peace negotiations with the Libyan regime. While Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the affiliation of the group with al-Qaeda in November 2007, the Libyan government released 90 members of the group from prison several months after ""they were said to have renounced violence."" In"
"by a U.S. airstrike with two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs on a safe house near Baqubah. The group's leadership was then assumed by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. U.S. intelligence in October 2005 published an intercepted letter purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri questioning AQI's tactic of indiscriminately attacking Shias in Iraq. In a video that appeared in December 2007, al-Zawahiri defended AQI, but distanced himself from the crimes against civilians committed by ""hypocrites and traitors"" that he said existed among its ranks. On 3 December 2004, AQI attempted unsuccessfully to blow up an Iraqi–Jordanian border crossing."
"have"". According to ""The Daily Beast"", al-Hamawi claimed that ""Ahrar al-Sham was mainstream and aligned with Western interests."" In December 2015, al-Hamawi sent Labib al-Nahhas to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in order to participate in the Saudi-led rebel conference that produced the High Negotiations Committee (HNC). Al-Hamawi has also falsely claimed that Al-Nusra had withdrawn from the Army of Conquest. His term as leader could have been extended, but the Shura Council of Ahrar al-Sham appointed Ali al-Omar as leader in November 2016. Abu Yahia al-Hamawi Mohannad al-Masri (born 1981), known by the alias Abu Yahia al-Hamawi, (sometimes transliterated Abu Yahya"
"Ansar al-Sharia (Yemen) Jama'at Ansar al-Shari'a (; '), also known as Ansar al-Shari'a, is a Yemen-based umbrella organization which includes units from several militant Islamic groups of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In 2011, AQAP created Ansar Al-Sharia as a Yemen-based affiliate focused on waging an insurgency rather than international attacks on the West. In the view of the International Crisis Group, AQAP is ""an internally diverse organisation with varying layers of support among the local population"" and many AAS members and allies are not committed to AQAP's international agenda. After the Battle of Zinjibar (May–September 2011), the faction"
"between 10 and 17 April 2014, as was senior commander Omar Ould Hamaha weeks earlier. The group is named after the Almoravids, a North-West African Islamic dynasty of the 11th and 12th centuries, spanning from Senegal to the Iberian peninsula. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. On 14 May 2015, Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui released an audio message pledging the group's allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Belmokhtar issued a statement several days later rejecting this pledge and stating that it"
"community bombings, the Sadr City bombings, the Ashoura massacre and the April 2007 Baghdad bombings. Following the death of bin Laden in 2011, the group has been led by Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Qaeda's philosophy calls for the centralization of decision making, while allowing for the decentralization of execution. However, after the War on Terror, al-Qaeda's leadership has become isolated. As a result, the leadership has become decentralized, and the organization has become regionalized into several al-Qaeda groups. Many terrorism experts do not believe that the global jihadist movement is driven at every level by al-Qaeda's leadership. However, bin Laden held"
"a close friend of Mohammed Atef, who would later become the military chief of Al Qaeda, and became acquainted with Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. In 1991 he returned to Egypt with a group of other Egyptians, founding the jihadi group Vanguards of Conquest, but was arrested in 1993 along with 150 of his followers and remained imprisoned until the revolution. Ashoush founded Ansar al-Sharia in November 2012. The same name has been used by Salafist Jihadist groups created in Yemen, Tunisia, Libya and elsewhere. The group releases statements through its media branch, al-Bayyan Media Foundation. In July 2013,"
"from May 2011 until the summer of 2012, when they were driven out with the help of American airstrikes. In 2011, the ""Yemeni Revolution"" protest movement to end the 33 years of rule by President Ali Abdullah Saleh created a ""power vacuum"" in parts of Yemen. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters seized a number of towns in Abyan—including the city of Jaar in March 2011 and Zinjibar in May. They later captured a football stadium outside Zinjibar which they used as ""a makeshift army base"". The ""emirate"" created by ASAP was noted as time when Al Qaeda sought"
"of the group, and install operatives within the senior ranks of Ahrar al-Sham. Such ties were not disclosed publicly until January 2014, when a former senior leader of Ahrar al-Sham, the now deceased Abu Khalid al-Suri, acknowledged his long-time membership in al-Qaeda and role as Ayman al-Zawahiri's representative in the Levant. In its first audio address, Ahrar al-Sham stated its goal was to replace the Assad government with a Sunni Islamic state. It acknowledged the need to take into account the population's current state of mind. It also described the uprising as a jihad against a Safawi plot to spread"
"Arabic: («المركز الإعلامي للحزب الإسلامي التركستاني «صوت الإسلام). The Shura Majlis of Al Qaeda included TIP (ETIM) member Abdul Haq al Turkistani. Al Qaeda also appointed TIP (ETIM) member Abdul Shakoor Turkistani as military commander of their forces in the FATA region of Pakistan. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a statement supporting Jihad in Xinjiang against Chinese, in the Caucasus against the Russians and naming Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan as places of warfare. Zawahiri endorsed ""jihad to liberate every span of land of the Muslims that has been usurped and violated, from Kashgar to Andalusia, and from the"
"workers. Foreign al-Shabaab commanders include: Foreign leaders and members: Countries and organizations below have officially listed al-Shabaab as a terrorist organization. While al-Shabaab previously represented the hard-line militant youth movement within the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), it is now described as an extremist splinter group of the ICU. Since the ICU's downfall, however, the distinction between the youth movement and the so-called successor organization to the ICU, the PRM, appears to have been blurred. Al-Shabaab had recently begun encouraging people from across society, including elders, to join their ranks. In February 2012, Fu'ad Mohamed Khalaf Shongole, the chief of awareness"
"4, 2013, McClatchy Newspapers, citing anonymous sources, reported on conversations between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, discussing an alleged imminent terrorist attack. Two days previously, ""The New York Times"" had agreed to withhold the identities of the Al Qaeda leaders after US intelligence officials claimed the information could jeopardize their operations. Government analysts and officials interviewed by the ""Times"" said the impact of this disclosure caused more immediate damage to American counter-terrorism efforts than the thousands of classified"
"rebel groups including al-Nusra Front, the Islamic Front and the Army of Mujahideen. In the months that followed, JMA reportedly spearheaded many of the assaults on Syrian government-controlled areas of western Aleppo. On 25 July 2014, the group joined with several other Aleppo-based jihadist factions into an alliance called Jabhat Ansar al-Din. In late 2014, the Saudi-dominated faction Green Battalion swore allegiance to JMA leader Salahuddin Shishani and became part of the group. In mid-2015, Shishani was deposed from the leadership following an internal dispute with the Saudi head of JMA’s sharia committee, Mu'tasim Billah al-Madani. Al-Madani subsequently became the"