| status = De facto
| term_start = 1 August 2022
| predecessor = Ayman al-Zawahiri (as General Emir)
| spouse = Asma
| parents =
| children = 5
| module =
| module2 =
| relations =
Mohamed Salah al-Din al-Halim Zaidan (; born 11 April 1960/1963), commonly known by his nom de guerre Saif al-Adel (), is an Egyptian Islamic militant who is the de facto leader of al-Qaeda. Previously an Egyptian Army officer, al-Adel fought the Soviets as an Afghan Arab before becoming a founding member of al-Qaeda. He is a member of al-Qaeda's Majlis al-Shura and has headed the organization's military committee since the death of Mohammad Atef in 2001. It is alleged (by unconfirmed accounts from various intelligence agencies) that as of 2023 he is living in Iran along with several other senior members of the group, though this remains unproven. the Egyptian military expelled al-Adel in 1987 and arrested him alongside thousands of Islamists amid allegations of attempting to rebuild the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and plans to topple Hosni Mubarak. The charges were dismissed, though al-Adel soon left Egypt for Afghanistan, joining Afghan Arab mujahideen resisting the Soviet invasion under the banner of al-Qaeda forerunner Maktab al-Khidamat in 1988. Sometime after, al-Adel became a member of the AQ Shura council, and by 1992 had become a member of its military committee, then headed by Mohammad Atef. He has provided military and intelligence training to members of al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan, and to anti-American Somali tribes. Following the subsequent United States invasion of Afghanistan, al-Adel was given secret asylum in Iran during which he was monitored by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In 2015, al-Qaeda made a deal with the IRGC's Qods Force to return Saif to Afghanistan, though he reportedly refused, stating a preference for maintaining Iran as his base of activities. al-Adel is currently under indictment in the United States, with charges related to his alleged role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. With the death of Zawahiri, Saif al-Adel is one of al-Qaeda's few surviving founding members. al-Adel has been tightening his grip over the AQ branches, promoting a loyalist base of field commanders and increasing his influence in the group's branch in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP, while waiting to be officially declared emir. Saif has made attempts to shift AQ's central command to Yemen, a country where the group has long had a branch. He fled Egypt in 1988 and made his way to Afghanistan, joining the relatively small but well funded (and mainly Egyptian and Saudi) Maktab Al-Khidamat, the forerunner to what would become Al-Qaeda. Al-Adel would later join Osama bin Laden in Sudan after 1994.
Real identity
Until 2012, there was much dispute over Al-Adel's real name and identity. According to the University of Exeter professor Omar Ashour, the FBI's previous information on Al-Adel had confused the biographies of two different members of Al-Qaeda; '<nowiki/>Mohamed Salah Al-Din Al-Halim Zidane<nowiki/>' and 'Muhammad Ibrahim Al-Makkawi<nowiki/>'. Ashour states that imagery of Al-Adel in FBI "Most Wanted List" depicts Zidane and asserts that, like Makkawi, Zidane was also a colonel of the Egyptian military. As of present, most intelligence agencies and analysts today confirm that Al-Adel's real identity is that of Zidane's. Makkawi was arrested by the Egyptian police on 29 February 2012 upon arrival at Cairo Airport from Pakistan. During interrogation, Makkawi denied that he was Al-Adel and claimed that he had splintered his affiliation with the organization in 1989. By the time of his arrest, Makkawi had been married in Pakistan and had a family there, and was reportedly distressed to see his name being promoted under the image of Saif Al-Adel. An Egyptian lawyer asserted that Makkawi was an Egyptian military officer who was arrested in the 1980s over ties to jihadist organizations. He later escaped to Afghanistan and became a member of Al-Qaeda. However, the lawyer also claimed that Makkawi was a different person from Saif Al-Adel and had severed ties with Al-Qaeda long ago. The real Al-Adel, currently based in Iran, was a supervisor of Bin Laden's personal security and has been described as an "experienced professional soldier" within the jihadist movement. Some analysts believe that Al-Adel may have once used Makkawi's name as an alias. On 9 September 2001, Adel was approached by Feroz Ali Abbasi, who said he was so impressed by the killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud that he wanted to volunteer for something similar.
In February 2006, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point published a number of declassified documents from the Harmony database, some of which are known or believed to have been written by Saif Al-Adel. One is a letter signed "Omar Al-Sumali, previously known as Saif Al-Adel", about the author's activities in southern Somalia during UNOSOM II (1993–1995). It identifies the southern town of Ras Kamboni as a suitable site for an Al-Qaeda base. from "'Abd-Al-Halim Adl'" to "'Mukhtar'", dated 13 June 2002, the author strongly criticises the leadership of Osama bin Laden, blaming the defeats of the preceding six months for Al-Qaeda on bin Laden's recklessness and unwillingness to listen to advice:
On 11 March 2005, Al-Quds Al-Arabi published extracts from Adel's document, "Al Qaeda's Strategy to the Year 2020". In his May 2005 correspondence to Deputy Emir Ayman Al-Zawhiri, Saif Al-Adel outlined the key pillars in Al-Qaeda's revolutionary strategy:
- Decisive Jihadist activities that precisely delineates goals and targets. The ultimate objective is the revival of "Islamic way of life by means of establishing the state of Islam". This endeavour has to be supervised by qualified Islamic scholars (ulema)
- All decisions, objectives and policies should be based on the belief of Tawhid (Islamic monotheism)
- Every activity should be implemented on the basis of short-term and long-term strategic visions. Adel writes in his message to Zawahiri:<blockquote> "mujahidin should have short-term plans aimed at achieving interim goals and long-term plans aimed at accomplishing the greater objective, which is the establishment of a state." of part of the hearing into the combatant status of detainee Ramzi bin Al-Shibh. Some of the evidence against bin Al-Shibh came from a diary of Saif Al-Adel found in Saudi Arabia in 2004.
The CSRT document described Al-Adel by the following: to Abu Walid al Masri, then under house arrest in Iran. He discusses the War in Afghanistan, criticises the religious failings of the mujahideen and hypocrisy of Islamic scholars, and the failure of the Jihadist movement to learn from previous mistakes. Al-Masri posted the letters on the Internet in December 2010. In March 2011, Adel allegedly released another five letters through al Masri, which covered the Arab Spring uprisings.
In August 2015, a eulogy written by Al-Adel for Abu Khalid Al-Suri, an Al-Qaeda veteran who served as both a senior figure in the Syrian opposition group Ahrar Al-Sham and as Ayman al Zawahiri's representative in Syria, was released. In the eulogy, he criticized the Islamic State and described them as having "twisted" and "perverted" thoughts. Sayf Al-Adel counselled Islamist fighters to prioritize attacking the police forces, military soldiers, state assets of enemy governments, etc. which he described as acceptable targets in military operations. Asserting that attacking women and children of enemies are contrary to Islamic values, Sayf Al-Adel asked: "If we target the general public, how can we expect their people to accept our call to Islam?". It has since been published on Amazon.
Personal life
Adel is married to the daughter of Egyptian Jihadist and journalist, Abu Walid Al-Masri. The couple reportedly have five children.
See also
- List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
- Abd Al-Rahman Al-Maghrebi
- Ahmed Al-Sharaa