Egyptian named new al Qaeda leader: Reports

Saif al Adel was allegedly involved in attacks on US embassies.

DUBAI:

Al Qaeda has chosen a former Egyptian special forces officer as interim leader, following the death of Osama bin Laden, CNN and Al-Jazeera reported on Tuesday.

Saif al Adel, a top al Qaeda strategist and senior military leader, has been tapped as “caretaker” chief of the group, CNN reported, citing former Libyan militant Noman Benotman, who has renounced al Qaeda’s ideology.

Al-Jazeera issued a similar report that quoted a Pakistani security official as saying Adel was appointed during a meeting of between “six and eight al Qaeda leaders.”

Mohammed Mustafa al Yamani was also chosen as the network’s commander.

The decision to choose Adel, also known as Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi, came as militants grew increasingly restive over the lack of a formal successor to Bin Laden, Benotman told CNN.

Adel, 50, took refuge in Iran after the US invasion of Afghanistan, according to the Al-Jazeera report. The militant was allegedly involved in attacks that targeted US embassies in Nairobi and Dar al Salam in 1998.

Benotman said the temporary appointment of Adel may be a way for the group to gauge reaction to having someone outside the Arabian Peninsula at the helm.

Yemeni caught in Karachi a ‘mid-level al Qaeda man’

A Yemeni al Qaeda militant arrested in Karachi was a “mid-level” operative and “explosives expert” involved in plotting attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, security officials alleged on Wednesday.

The Pakistani army identified him as Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Sohaib al Makki, and said he had been “working directly under al Qaeda leaders along [the] Pakistan-Afghan border”.

Makki’s arrest was the first move against what authorities said was a prominent militant since US special forces killed Bin Laden.

A Pakistani intelligence official said Makki was believed to be one of the main couriers between Bin Laden and al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al Zawahri.

Pakistani officials investigating the Makki case alleged he was involved in the planning of attacks against Saudi Arabian interests in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan.

“He is a mid-level operative and has been very active in the region, but I can’t say yet if he is ‘huge’ in the global scheme of things,” said the official, adding intelligence agencies arrested him about a week ago in central Karachi.

Al Makki was among prisoners who escaped from a prison in the Afghan city of Kandahar in 2008, two senior Pakistani officials said.

Around 1,000 prisoners, including insurgents, escaped after a truck bomb blew open the jail’s gates.

Retired army general Talat Masood said Pakistan should boost cooperation with ally the US in its fight against militancy given the embarrassment caused by Bin Laden’s presence. “I think it’s too dangerous for Pakistani security agencies to create any drama [to hoodwink Americans] at this stage,” he said.

“It seems to me it was a genuine catch and they have to share it [information] with Americans, otherwise it will be meaningless,” he said.

A military official in Islamabad said Makki was an “explosives expert”. The official said he was “definitely” linked to the al Qaeda leadership but did not elaborate.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2011.