Ayman Al-Zawahiri: Cairo Doctor Who Became Top Terrorist Osama Bin Laden's Successor In Al-Qaeda

Zawahiri, who assumed control of Islamic Jihad in Egypt in 1993, played a key role in the movement to topple the government and establish a strict Islamic state in the mid 1990s.

President Joe Biden on Monday said that the United States killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri in a "precise" operation in Afghanistan capital Kabul, dealing the militant group its worst blow since the death of its founder Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon with a $25 million bounty on his head, assisted in planning the attacks of the September 11, 2001 (9/11 Attacks), which resulted in the death of nearly 3,000 US citizens.

Quoting US officials, who did not want to be named, a Reuters report said Zawahiri was killed when he came out on the balcony of his safe house in Kabul on Sunday morning and was hit by "hellfire" missiles from a US drone.

In remarks from the White House, Biden stated, "Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist commander is no more."

He added: "The United States will find you and take you out no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide." 

Here’s everything about the man who succeeded Osama Bin Laden In Al-Qaeda.

First Global Appearance As A Terrorist

Zawahiri's involvement with Islamist extremism dates a long way back. 

He became known to the world for the first time when he was imprisoned in a courtroom cage following the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat in 1981. Zawahiri was sentenced to three years in prison for illegally possessing weapons, but was cleared of the more serious accusations.

The Pakistan Connection

Zawahiri travelled to Pakistan after his release and joined the Red Crescent to assist Islamist mujahideen fighters injured while battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan. He supposedly met Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi who had joined the Afghan resistance, during that time.

Major Breakthrough

A balding, white-turbaned Zawahiri, who assumed control of Islamic Jihad in Egypt in 1993, played a key role in the movement to topple the government and establish a strict Islamic state in the middle of the 1990s. There were 1,200 or more Egyptian deaths, according to different accounts.

After President Hosni Mubarak was the target of an assassination attempt in Addis Abeba in June 1995, Egyptian authorities launched a campaign against Islamic Jihad. As a response, Zawahiri gave the order to attack the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad in 1995. Sixteen people were killed when two automobiles carrying explosives crashed through the gates of the facility, reports from the time said.

In 1999, an Egyptian military court sentenced Zawahiri to death in absentia. After assisting Osama in creating Al-Qaeda, he had been until then leading an austere life.

Taking Over Al-Qaeda

Zawahiri had been thought to be hiding for many years along the dangerous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Reuters report cited above said US officials discovered this year that Zawahiri's family — wife, their daughter, and her children — had moved to a safe house in Kabul and later located Zawahiri there.

After Osama bin Laden was assassinated by American Navy Seals in his Pakistani safe house in 2011, Zawahiri became the leader of Al-Qaeda. Since then, he had made numerous calls for world jihad while holding an Ak-47 in his video messages to the world.

The Era Of Constant Terror Breakouts

Zawahiri had pledged to continue strikes against the West after Osama's death.

He frequently attempted to incite Muslim rage by making comments online about American Middle East policy or Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.

It was Zawahiri who is thought to have organised the 9/11 attacks, when planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda were used to kill 3,000 people in the United States, and some of Al-Qaeda's other largest operations.

He was indicted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The FBI put a $25 million bounty on his head.

Roots Of Zawahiri: Hailed From A Prominent Family

Zawahiri belonged to a famous Cairo family. He was the son of a pharmacology professor and grandson of the grand imam of Al Azhar, one of Islam's most significant mosques. 

Raised in the Maadi neighbourhood of Cairo, quote popular with foreigners from the West, Zawahiri first embraced Islamic fanaticism when he was 15 years old.

Doctor To Terrorist

The revolutionary beliefs of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian writer who was executed in 1966 on allegations of attempting to topple the government, reportedly served as inspiration for him.

Zawahiri is remembered by those who studied with him at Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine in the 1970s as a vivacious young man who enjoyed movies and music.

"When he came out of prison, he was a completely different person," the Reuters report quoted a doctor who had studied under Zawahiri as saying.

After Sadat was killed during a military parade, Zawahiri spoke to the media from a courtroom cage. He said militants had been subjected to terrible torture, including beatings and attacks by wild dogs while imprisoned.

He claimed that the purpose of the detention of the wives, mothers, fathers, sisters, and sons was to exert psychological pressure on the captives.

According to his fellow inmates, these circumstances led Zawahiri to become even more radicalised.