Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri - for years the second most powerful man in al-Qaeda - is appointed head of the militant organisation following Osama Bin Laden's death, al-Qaeda says.

Profile: Ayman al-Zawahiri
Zawahiri was al-Qaeda's most prominent spokesman and ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri, an eye surgeon who helped found the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant group, was often referred to as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man and the chief ideologue of al-Qaeda.

Reports say he has taken over the leadership of the organisation, following the killing by US forces of Bin Laden in May 2011.

He is believed by some experts to have been the "operational brains" behind the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States.

Zawahiri was number two - behind only Bin Laden - in the 22 "most wanted terrorists" list announced by the US government in 2001 and continues to have a $25m (£15m) bounty on his head.

Some experts even suggest Egyptian Islamic Jihad virtually took over al-Qaeda when the two groups forged a coalition in the late 1990s.

Zawahiri was reportedly last seen in the eastern Afghan town of Khost in October 2001, and went into hiding after a US-led coalition overthrew the Taliban.

He has since evaded capture and was thought to be hiding in the mountainous regions along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with the help of sympathetic local tribes - though Bin Laden was tracked down to and killed in a residential area of the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.

Spokesman

In recent years, Zawahiri has emerged as al-Qaeda's most prominent spokesman, appearing in 16 videos and audiotapes in 2007 - four times as many as Bin Laden - as the group tries to radicalise and recruit Muslims around the world.


Bin Laden and Zawahiri have been comrades in arms since 1998 Zawahiri's increasingly high profile is thought to have led to a US missile strike on 13 January 2006 near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan aimed at killing him.

The attack killed four al-Qaeda members, but Zawahiri survived and appeared on video two weeks later warning US President George W Bush that neither he nor "all the powers on earth" could bring his death "one second closer".

In July 2007, Zawahiri appeared in a video an hour-and-a-half long, urging Muslims to unite behind al-Qaeda's global jihad and outlining its future strategy.

He said its short-term aim was to attack the interests of the "crusaders and Jews" - the US, its Western allies and Israel.

Its long-term aim is to topple Muslim regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and to use Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia as training grounds for Islamist militants.

On 8 June 2011, Zawahiri issued a statement on the web warning that Osama Bin Laden will continue to "terrify" the US from beyond the grave.

Distinguished family
Born in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on 19 June 1951, Zawahiri came from a respectable middle-class family of doctors and scholars.

His grandfather, Rabia al-Zawahiri, was the grand imam of al-Azhar, the centre of Sunni Islamic learning in the Middle East, while one of his uncles was the first secretary-general of the Arab League.

Zawahiri became involved in political Islam while still at school and was arrested at the age of 15 for being a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood - Egypt's oldest and largest Islamist organisation. His political activities did not, however, stop him from studying medicine at Cairo University's medical school, from which he graduated in 1974 and obtained a masters degree in surgery four years later. His father Mohammed, who died in 1995, was a pharmacology professor at the same school.

Radical youth

Zawahiri initially continued the family tradition, building up a medical clinic in a suburb of Cairo, but soon became attracted to radical Islamist groups which were calling for the overthrow of the Egyptian government.
Zawahiri's time in prison, where he was tortured, is said to have profoundly influenced him When Egyptian Islamic Jihad was founded in 1973, he joined.
In 1981, he was rounded up along with hundreds of other suspected members of the group after several dressed as soldiers assassinated President Anwar Sadat during a military parade in Cairo.
Sadat had angered Islamist activists by signing a peace deal with Israel, and by arresting hundreds of his critics in an earlier security crackdown.

During the mass trial, Zawahiri emerged as a leader of the defendants and was filmed telling the court: "We are Muslims who believe in our religion. We are trying to establish an Islamic state and Islamic society."Although he was cleared of involvement in Sadat's assassination, Zawahiri was convicted of the illegal possession of arms, and served a three-year sentence.
According to fellow Islamist prisoners, Zawahiri was regularly tortured and beaten by the authorities during his time in jail in Egypt, an experience which is said to have transformed him into a fanatical and violent extremist.Following his release in 1985, Zawahiri left for Saudi Arabia.

Soon afterwards he headed for Peshawar in Pakistan and later to neighbouring Afghanistan, where he established a faction of Egyptian Islamic Jihad whilst working as a doctor in the country during the Soviet occupation.


Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was killed by Islamic Jihad in 1981 Zawahiri took over the leadership of Egyptian Islamic Jihad after it re-emerged in 1993, and was a key figure behind a series of attacks by the group on Egyptian government ministers, including the Prime Minister, Atif Sidqi.

The group's campaign to topple the government and set up an Islamic state in the country during the mid-1990s led to the deaths of more than 1,200 Egyptians.

In 1997, the US state department named him as leader of the Vanguards of Conquest group - a faction of Islamic Jihad thought to have been behind the massacre of foreign tourists in Luxor the same year.

Two years later he was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian military court for his role in the group's many attacks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13788594

Zawahiri and Bin Laden are old comrades.

Moved to foreign Affairs section

This man can never fill Bin Laden shoes.

1. He did not inherit £30m from his father.
2. he is not charismatic.
3. He has been around for a while and gathering info on him will simply be a continual process.

They will bring him down in 6 months.

mikeansy:

This man can never fill Bin Laden shoes.

1. He did not inherit £30m from his father.
2. he is not charismatic.
3. He has been around for a while and gathering info on him will simply be a continual process.

They will bring him down in 6 months.

4. He does not have Osama's calm disposition - this guy will do something rash very soon.
5. Intelligence gathering seems to be getting better - three Al Qaeda lords killed in a matter of weeks.

I think they will get him very soon.