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Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri (Arabic: أيمن محمد ربيع الظواهري)
June 19, 1951 - Present
Place of birth	Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
Allegiance	Muslim Brotherhood Afghan mujahideen Egyptian Islamic Jihad al-Qaeda
Rank	Commander
Battles/wars	Afghan Civil War War on Terrorism

Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri (Arabic: أيمن محمد ربيع الظواهري ) or closer to the original Arabic pronunciation al-Zawahri (born June 19, 1951) is a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, and was the second and last "emir" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded 'Abbud al-Zummar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zummar to life imprisonment. Al-Zawahiri is a qualified surgeon, and is an author of works including numerous al-Qaeda statements. He speaks Arabic, French, and English. Al-Zawahiri is under worldwide embargo by the UN 1267 Committee as a member or affiliate of al-Qaeda.^[1]

In 1998 he formally merged Egyptian Islamic Jihad into al-Qaeda. According to reports by a former al-Qaeda member, he has worked in the al-Qaeda organization since its inception and was a senior member of the group's shura council. He is often described as a "lieutenant" to the head of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.

His aliases include: Abu Muhammad (Abu Mohammed), Abu Fatima, Muhammad Ibrahim, Abu Abdallah, Abu al-Mu'iz, The Doctor, The Teacher, Nur, Ustaz, Abu Mohammed Nur al-Deen, Abdel Muaz (Abdel Moez, Abdel Muez).^[2]

Contents 1 Upbringing and education 2 Marriage and family 3 Attempted coup 4 Imprisonment and torture 5 Leaving Egypt 6 Egypt and Sudan 7 Collaboration with Islamic Republic of Iran 8 Attacks in Egypt 9 Expulsion from Sudan 10 Fatwa with Osama bin Laden 11 Video messages 12 Wanted in the USA and Egypt 13 References 14 See also 15 Video 16 External links

Ayman al-Zawahiri was born to a prominent but not wealthy middle class family in Maadi, Egypt, a suburb of Cairo, and was reportedly a studious youth. His father, Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, was a pharmacologist and a professor coming from a large family of doctors and scholars, while his mother, Umayma Azzam came from a wealthy and politised clan. A bit of a bookworm, he excelled in school, loved poetry, "hated violent sports" - which he thought were `inhumane` - and had a deep affection to his mother.^[3]

His family was "religious but not overly pious,"^[4] but Zawahiri became both quite pious and political, under the influence of his uncle Mahfouz Azzam, who had been a student and then lifelong follower of radical Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb.

Qutb preached in his manifesto Ma'alim fi al-Tariq (Milestones), that "the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries" having reverted to Jahiliyyah, "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God."^[5] To restore Islam and free Muslims, "jahili society, jahili concepts, jahili traditions and jahili leadership," had to be eliminated,^[6] and to do this a vanguard of true Muslims modeling itself after the original Muslims, the "companions" of the Prophet Muhammad had to be developed. Like the companions, this vanguard would cut themselves off from the Jahiliyyah -- i.e. ignore the learning and culture of non-Muslim groups (Greeks, Romans, Persians, Christians or Jews) -- and separate themselves from their old non-Muslim friends and family. It would look to the Qur'an for orders to obey, not "learning and information" or solutions to problems.^[7]

The implication of this idea for many, was that Muslim government officials, particularly those of Egypt, had become so corrupted they were no longer true Muslims. As apostates, they could be killed under Islamic law. In 1965 Qutb was accused of plotting to overthrow the state, with Milestones with much of the prosecutor's evidence being taken directly from Milestones and defended by Qutb. Qutb was tried, convicted and executed. Milestones became a best seller.^[8][9]

By fourteen al-Zawahiri joined the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin) Islamist group. The following year the Egyptian government executed Qutb for conspiracy, and al-Zawahiri, along with four other secondary school students, helped form an "underground cell devoted to overthrowing the government and establishing an Islamist state." It was at this early age that al-Zawahiri developed a mission in life, "to put Qutb's vision into action."^[10] His cell eventually merged with others to form al-Jihad or Egyptian Islamic Jihad.^[11] At Cairo University, Al-Zawahiri studied behavior, psychology and pharmacology graduating in 1974 with gayyid giddan. Following that he served three years as a surgeon in the Egyptian Army after which he established a clinic near his parents.^[11] About that time (1978) he also earned a Masters degree in surgery.^[12]

In 1978 he married Azza Nowari, the daughter of an old family friend. Azza had become very religious in college, wearing a niqab, a black hijab covering all but her eyes, and sometimes spending the whole night reading the Qur'an. Their wedding was very pious, with separate areas for men and women, and no music, photographs, or light hearted humour.^[13] Many years later when the United States attacked Afghanistan following 9/11, Azza denied ever knowing that Zawahiri had been a jihadi emir (commander) for the last decade, although at least one acquaintance is skeptical of her ignorance of this fact.^[14]

The couple had four daughters described by observers as "bright, outspoken, and beautiful, particularly Nabila." Their youngest daughter, Aisha, suffered from Downs syndrome. Mohammed, their only son, was allegedly a "delicate, well-mannered boy" and "the pet of his older sisters," subject to teasing and bullying in a traditional all-male environment. who preferred to "stay at home and help his mother."^[15]

Azza and Aisha both died following the 9/11 attack. After American bombardment of a Taliban officials building at Gardez, Azza was pinned under debris of a guesthouse roof. Concerned for her modesty, she "refused to be excavated" because "men would see her face." Her four-year-old daughter Aisha had not been hurt by the bombing but died from exposure in the night cold while the rescuers tried to save Azza.^[16]

In Islamic Jihad, he eventually became one of its leading organizers and recruiters. Zawahiri's hope was to recruit military officers and accumulate weapons, waiting for the right moment to launch "a complete overthrow of the existing order."^[17] Chief strategist of Al-Jihad was Aboud al-Zumar, a colonel in the military intelligence whose

plan was to kill the main leaders of the country, capture the headquarters of the army and State Security, the telephone exchange building, and of course the radio and television building, where news of the Islamic revolution would then be broadcast, unleashing - he expected - a popular uprising against secular authority all over the country."^[17]

The plan was derailed when authorities were alerted to Al-Jihad's plan by the arrest of an operative carrying crucial information, in February 1981. President Sadat ordered the roundup of more than 1500 people, including many Al-Jihad members, but missed a cell in the military led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, who succeeded in assassinating Anwar Sadat during a military parade that October.^[18]

Al-Zawahiri was one of hundreds arrested following the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Al-Zawahiri's lawyer Montasser el-Zayat contends that Zawahiri was tortured in prison.^[19]

In his book, Al-Zawahiri as I Knew Him, lawyer Muntasir Al-Zayyat maintains that under torture of the Egyptian police, following his arrest in connection with the murder of President Sadat in 1981, Al-Zawahiri revealed the hiding place of Essam al-Qamari, a key member of the Maadi cell of al-Jihad, which led to Al-Qamari's "arrest and eventual execution."^[20] (Essam Al-Qamari was a decorated major in the Egyptian army who smuggled weapons and ammunition from army strongholds for al-Jihad.)

However, the Egyptian government was unable to prove any connection between al-Zawahiri and the assassination of Sadat.^{[citation needed]} Al-Zawahiri was convicted of dealing in weapons and received a three-year sentence, which he completed in 1984 shortly after his conviction.^[21]

In 1985, al-Zawahiri went to Saudi Arabia on Hajj and stayed to practice medicine in Jeddah for a year.^[22] He then traveled to Peshawar, Pakistan to help the Afghan Mujahideen in their fight against occupying Soviet military forces,^[23] and to reconstitute the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) along with other exiled militants. The group had "very loose ties to their nominal imprisoned leader, Abud al-Zumur." In Peshwar al-Zawahiri is thought to have become radicalized by other Al-Jihad members, abandoning his old strategy of a swift coup d'etat to change society from above, and embracing the idea of takfir.^[24] In 1991, EIJ broke with al-Zumur, and al-Zawahiri grabbed "the reins of power" to become EIJ leader.^[25]

In the mean time in Peshawar he met Osama bin Laden, who was running a base for mujahideen called Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK); founded by the Palestinian Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. The radical position of al-Zawahiri and the other militants of Al-Jihad put them at odds with Sheikh Azzam, with whom they competed for the financial resources of Osama bin Laden.^[26]

In 1990, al-Zawahiri returned to Egypt, where he continued to influence Islamic Jihad in more radical directions, employing knowledge and tactics learned in Afghanistan.^{[citation needed]}

Al-Zawahiri and his group struggled financially. He is reported to have visited America at least once in the early 1990 in an attempt to raise money for EIJ. In 1993 he appeared on the speaker circuit in several California mosques posing as "Dr. Abdul Mu'iz," of the Kuwaiti Red Crescent, "raising money for Afghan children who had been injured by Soviet land mines from the time of jihad." The trip was a financial failure, raising "at most" only $2000, and leading his organization closer to an eventual alliance with al-Qaeda.^[27]

Zawahiri worked with the Islamic Republic on behalf of al-Qaeda. Lawrence Wright reports that EIJ operative Ali Mohammed "told the FBI that al-Jihad had planned a coup in Egypt in 1990." Zawahiri had studied 1979 Islamist Iranian Revolution and "sought training from the Iranians" as to how to duplicate their feat against the Egyptian government.

“

He offered Iran information about an Egyptian government plan to storm several islands in the Persian Gulf that both Iran and the United Arab Emirates lay claim to. According to Mohammed, in return for this information, the Iranian government paid Zawahiri $2 million and helped train members of al-Jihad in a coup attempt that never actually took place.[28]

”

One result of Zawahiri and EIJ's connection with Iran may have been the use of suicide bombing in August 1993 in an attempt on the life of Egyptian Interior Minister, Hasan al-Alfi, the man heading the effort to quash the Islamist terrorist campaign in Egypt. It failed as did a non-suicide attempt to kill Egyptian prime minister, Atef Sidqi three months later. The bombing of Sidqi's car did succeed in injured 21 Egyptians and killing a young schoolgirl, Shayma Abdel-Halim. Unfortunately for EIJ this bombing came at a time when terrorist attacks had already killed 200 people and public patience had run short. Her funeral became a public spectacle with her coffin was carried through the streets of Cairo and crowds shouting, 'Terrorism is the enemy of God!'^[29] The police arrested 280 more of al-Jihad's members and executed six.

Zawahiri later wrote of his upset with the public reaction. "This meant that they wanted my daughter, who was two at the time, and the daughters of other colleagues, to be orphans. Who cried or cared for our daughters?"^[30]

In 1996, Zawahiri and his EIJ group were expelled from Sudan following a failed assassination attempt on Egyptian Pres. Mubarak and their killing of two boys for betraying the EIJ. At this time he is said to have "become a phantom"^[31] but is thought to have traveled widely to "Switzerland and Sarajevo. ... A fake passport he was using shows that he traveled to Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong." In late 1996 he was detained in Russia for six months by the FSB after he was caught trying to cross the border into Chechnya without a visa, posing as a Sudanese merchant.^[31] According to the FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko, "He had four passports, in four different names and nationalities. We checked him out in every country, but they could not confirm him. We could not keep him forever, so we took him to the Azerbaijani border and let him go."

Zawahiri and other EIJ members found refuge in Jalalabad Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda families had settled. About 250 people were gathered there altogether.

While there Zawahiri learned of Nonviolence Initiative being organized in Egypt to end the terrorist campaign that had killed hundreds and resulting government crackdown that had imprisoned thousands. Ayman Zawahiri angrily opposed this "surrender" in letters to the London newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat.^[32] Together with members of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya he organized a massive terrorist attack on tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut to sabotage the initiative by provoking the government into repression.^[33]

Main article: November 1997 Luxor massacre

The attack by six men dressed in police uniforms, succeeded in machine-gunning and hacking to death 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians, including "a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons," and devastated the Egyptian tourist industry for a number of years. Nonetheless the Egyptian reaction was not what Zawahiri had hoped for. The attack so stunned and angered Egyptian society that Islamists denied responsibility. Zawahiri blamed the police for the killing, but also held the tourists responsible for their own deaths for coming to Egypt,

The people of Egypt consider the presence of these foreign tourists to be aggression against Muslims and Egypt, ... The young men are saying that this is our country and not a place for frolicking and enjoyment, especially for you.^[34]

The massacre was so unpopular that no terrorist attacks occurred in Eygpt for several years thereafter. Zawahiri was sentenced to death in absentia in 1999 by an Egyptian military tribunal.^{[citation needed]}

On February 23, 1998, he issued a joint fatwa with Osama bin Laden under the title "World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders", an important step in broadening their conflicts to a global scale. Zawahiri, not bin Laden, is thought to have been the actual author of the fatwa.^[35]

On October 10, 2001, al-Zawahiri appeared on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush.

In December 2001, he published the book Knights Under the Prophet's Banner outlining al-Qaeda ideology.^[36] English translations of this book were published; excerpts are available online.^[37] He is also currently working on another book.^{[citation needed]}

Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri's whereabouts are unknown, but he is generally thought to be in tribal Pakistan. Although he releases videos of himself frequently (see Videos of Ayman al-Zawahiri), al-Zawahiri has not appeared alongside Osama bin Laden in any of them since 2002.

On December 3, 2001, airstrikes were launched on a complex of caves near Jalalabad. Zawahiri's wife, Azza, and their three children were reportedly killed in the attack.^{[citation needed]}

On January 13, 2006, the CIA launched an airstrike on Damadola, a Pakistani village near the Afghan border, where they believed al-Zawahiri was located. The airstrike was supposed to have killed al-Zawahiri and was thus reported in international news the following days. Many victims were buried without being identified. Anonymous U.S. government officials claimed that some terrorists were killed and the Bajaur tribal area government confirmed that at least four terrorists were among the dead. Anti-American protests broke out around the country and Pakistan's government condemned the U.S. attack and the loss of innocent life. On January 30th a new video was released showing al-Zawahiri unhurt. The video did discuss the airstrike, but did not reveal if al-Zawahiri was present in the village at that time.

Pakistani intelligence sources^[38] confirmed that al-Zawahiri was the target of a Predator missile strike October 30, 2006 on a madrassa in Pakistan.

Al-Zawahiri supplied direction for the Lal Masjid siege in July, 2007. Pakistani Army troops taking control of the Red Mosque in Islamabad found letters from al-Zawahiri directing Islamic militants Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah. This conflict resulted in 100 deaths.^[39]

Main article: Videos of Ayman al-Zawahiri

• May 2003 - Tape was broadcast by al-Jazeera and included the directives (interpreted) "Raze/Singe the floor out from under their feet... the political and corporate interests of the United States... and Norway." which caused a global lockdown and extensive confusion for the country of Norway. A short while later, the SS Norway, flagship of Norweigan Cruise Lines, experienced a freak "Boiler Explosion" while docking in the Port of Miami.
• Early September 2003 - A video showing al-Zawahiri and bin Laden walking together, as well as an audiotape, is released to the al-Jazeera network.
• September 9, 2004 - Another video is released announcing more assaults.
• August 4, 2005 - He issues a televised statement blaming Tony Blair and his government's foreign policy for the July 2005 London bombings.^[40]
• September 1, 2005 - al-Jazeera broadcasts a video message from Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of bombers of the London metro. His message is followed by another message from al-Zawahiri, blaming again Blair for the bombings.^[41]
• 19 September 2005 - He claims responsibility for the London bombings.^[42]
• December 7, 2005 - The full 40 minute interview from September is posted on the Internet with previously unseen video footage. See below for links.

• For their leading role in anti-Egyptian terrorism in the 1990s, Ayman al-Zawahiri and his brother Muhammad al-Zawahiri were sentenced to death in the 1999 Egyptian case of the Returnees from Albania.
• Ayman al-Zawahiri is under indictment^[43] in the United States for this role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The Rewards for Justice Program of the U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to US$25 million for information about his location.^[44][2]
• The US intelligence community sometimes uses the alias "HVT-2", or High Value Target Two, to refer to Zawahiri.^[45]

• Egyptian Islamic Jihad
• Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman
• The Al Qaeda Reader

• Al-Zawahiri Calls on Muslims to Give Aid to Earthquake Victims in Pakistan

• New Yorker story about al-Zawahiri, by Lawrence Wright
• Fatwa from World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders - Statement with bin Laden, 23 February 1998
• Nimrod Raphaeli's Biography of al-Zawahiri from Terrorism and Political Violence 14:4 (Winter 2002) 1-22.
• Al-Zawahiri: US faces Afghan, Iraq defeat (Aljazeera, 09 September 2004)
• Excerpts and video footage released December 1, 2005 from the September 2005 interview
• CNN's report on the January 2006 al-Zarqawi video tape
• Letter from al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi, copy at GlobalSecurity.org
• Extracts from Knights Under the Prophet's Banner

Persondata
NAME	Zawahiri, Ayman al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Abu Muhammad (nickname); Abu Fatima (nickname); Ibrahim, Muhammad (alias); Abu Abdallah (nickname); Deen, Abu Mohammed Nur al- (alias); Abdel Muaz (alias)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	terrorist leader
DATE OF BIRTH	June 19, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH	Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH	none