Times Now, a news website, revealed that Ayman Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian national, 69-year-old, was last seen in a video during the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks this year two months ago.
The 9/11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist strikes by the Al-Qaeda in the United States on 11 September 2001.
However, many believe that Al-Zawahiri did not possess bin Laden’s ability to rally Islamic radicals from around the world.
The biggest challenge the terror outfit now faces is not just to find a new leader, but also to match up to the level of fear the organization commanded during Bin Laden’s reign.
Al-Zawahiri, chief of the dreaded terror organization Al-Qaeda died in Afghanistan a month due to natural causes, according to an Arab News report.
If true, his death could prove a catastrophic turnaround for the terror outfit, which he co-founded with former leader Bin Laden in 1988 in Pakistan’s Peshawar.
What’s even more concerning for the terror group is that they have to now scramble to fill the top spot as two of their senior commanders in line to replace Al-Zawahiri were recently killed.
Hamza bin Laden, a son of bin Laden, was killed in a US counter-terrorism operation last year, according to the White House.
The New York Times reported last week that Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, aka Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was secretly killed in Iran’s Tehran in August by two Israeli operatives.
The killing of bin Laden, a Saudi national, in a US operation in Pakistan in 2011 left the beleaguered group in the clutches of Al-Zawahiri, but experts say he did not possess Bin Laden’s ability to rally Islamic radicals from around the world.
It is very typical of Al-Qaeda to not publish news about the death of its leaders in a timely manner.
The biggest challenge the terror outfit now faces is not just to find a new leader, but also to match up to the level of fear the organization commanded during Bin Laden’s reign.
Follow the latest news on Google News
