Ayman

When President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, he made sure to tell the American people that the War on Terror was not yet finished.

“His death does not mark the end of our effort,” Obama said. “There’s no doubt that al-Qaida will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must — and we will — remain vigilant at home and abroad.”

Sure enough, a little more than a month after American Special Forces destroyed al-Qaida’s founder, the terrorist network announced a new leader, a doctor and Sunni extremist from Cairo by the name of Ayman al-Zawahiri.

During college at Cairo University, al-Zawahiri started a jihad organization while still earning a medical degree. Later, friends and family would say they never knew he was a jihadist commander at the time.

In 1986, he fled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after a failed coup attempt in Egypt. It was there that he met bin Laden and worked with him to form and grow al-Qaida.

The public face of the organization was bin Laden, but al-Zawahiri worked behind the scenes and was part of the brains of al-Qaida.

It was al-Zawahiri who wrote the fatwa that he and bin Laden released with the title “World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders,” which subsequently led to the 1998 attacks at the U.S. embassy and the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.

 One belief is that al-Zawahiri was the one who had the authority to organize the 9/11 attacks.

He not only served as bin Laden’s second-in-command, but as his personal doctor, as well. The last known word about his whereabouts was a raid in September 2008 in which Pakistani Army officials said they “almost” captured al-Zawahiri and his wife in northwest Pakistan.

On June 16, al-Qaida made two announcements. They renewed their vows to not accept any compromise on Palestine’s statehood and announced al-Zawahiri as the new, active head of the network. Three days later he celebrated his 60th birthday.

“Hereby the General Command of the Qaida al-Jihad … we declare that Sheikh Dr. Abu Muhammad Ayman al-Zawahiri — may God bless him — will take over the responsibility of command of the group,” according to the statement released by al-Qaida.

Today, al-Zawahiri tops the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists. But al-Zawahiri remains in control of the vast network that bin Laden once ruled.

Al-Qaida’s war with the West has by no means ended, but neither has America’s war with international terrorism.

— Charles Scudder

Illustration by Chris Ware | MCT Campus