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Al-Jihad has had a hand in almost every major terrorist attack against the United States and its allies over the past 20 years. Its leader, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, is Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man. Al-Zawahiri is reputedly the intellectual and ideological leader of the International Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders, an alliance formed in 1998 of al-Jihad, al Qaeda, and a slew of other terrorist groups from the Muslim world.
Al-Jihad first gained notoriety in 1981 with the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The group had been active since the late 1970s when it formed as a violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The group sought the overthrow of what it saw as Egypt’s corrupt secular government.
Egyptian security authorities began a ruthless crackdown on al-Jihad in the 1980s, imprisoning, torturing and executing its members. Under such pressure the group split into two factions, one led by al-Zawahiri, the other by Abbud al-Zumar, who is currently imprisoned. The latter faction has since withered as many of its members have been jailed. By comparison, Al-Zawahiri’s faction of al-Jihad — also known as the Vanguards of Conquest (Talaa’al al-Fateh) — has thrived.
In the early 1980s, al-Zawahiri made several trips to Afghanistan to help the jihad against the Soviets. By the mid-1980s, inspired in part by the Afghani fighters’ resolve and motivated by an unfavorable political climate in Egypt, he seized upon the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan as a new base of operations. By 1987, according to Egyptian intelligence officials, al-Zawahiri had begun to reassemble al-Jihad from the so-called Afghan Arabs who had come from other Gulf States seeking martyrdom in the war.
New cells of al-Jihad were trained in the mujaheddin camps of Afghanistan from which they set off on missions to Egypt. Al-Jihad militants were trained as suicide bombers (reputedly an al-Zawahiri specialty) and, for reasons of security and effectiveness, they formed into isolated cells working independent of one another.
It has been said that al-Jihad was responsible for more attacks on high-level Egyptian government officials than any other group. In 1993, they carried out two assassination attempts, one on Egyptian Interior Minister Hassan Al-Alfi in August, and the other against Prime Minister Atef Sedky in November. In 1995, al-Jihad agents attempted to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but failed.
Increasingly, however, al-Zawahiri has left behind the struggle in Egypt to join bin Laden in his efforts to attack American interests abroad. Lack of money and other resources may have caused the strengthening of this union. The relationship between al-Zawahiri and bin Laden was formalized in February 1998 when al-Jihad joined the International Front, and was sealed in June 2001 when al Qaeda and al-Jihad merged into a single group, Qaeda al-Jihad. A look at their activities from the mid-1990s onward confirms the shift: In 1994 al-Jihad militants were linked to two unsuccessful attempts to bomb the Israeli and U.S. embassies in Manila. Additionally, 15 people were also killed in a November 1995 suicide truck bomb attack on the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. Al-Jihad is believed to have been behind the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, while, the same year, the group also planned an unsuccessful attack on the U.S. Embassy in Albania. They are also suspected in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, and believed to have been directly involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The present location of al-Zawahiri is unknown. According to the U.S. State Department, the current strength and size of al-Jihad is also unknown, but estimates reach as high as several hundred hard-core members with perhaps as many as several thousand sympathizers.
The State Department is also uncertain whether al-Jihad receives any state funding or other support. Egypt has long claimed that both Iran and Sudan provided assistance to al-Jihad. In August 1992, Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Wali accused the two countries of smuggling arms to terrorist groups operating in Egypt with ties to al-Jihad. However, these assertions have been downplayed as relations between the countries improved. As recently as Aug. 28, 2002, reports circulated that Saif al-Adl, an Egyptian national with ties to al-Jihad (and who currently serves as bin Laden’s security chief) was now operating in Iran. Al-Adl, who is also on the FBI’s most wanted list as a key suspect in the organization of the 1998 east Africa embassy bombings, is reportedly hiding out in hotels and guest houses in the cities of Mashhad and Zabol. Pakistan may also have utilized al-Jihad members in its campaign against India over Kashmir.
Because of the particularly close links between al-Jihad and al Qaeda, financial ties between the organizations are probable. In addition, many al-Jihad members received instruction at the al Qaeda-financed Kunar and Khost terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. It is also believed that al-Jihad receives some funding through various Islamic non-governmental organizations and cover businesses as well as criminal acts.
Sources
"Support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq," U.S. Department of State.
Jonathan S. Landay and Lenny Savino, “Islamic Group is a Suspect in Cole Attack Al-Jihad ties to Osama bin Laden,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 20, 2000.
Ed Blanche, “Ayman Al-Zawahiri: Attention Turns to the Other Prime Suspect.” Jane’s Intelligence Review, Oct. 3, 2001.
Susan Schmidt and Dana Priest, “U.S. Fears Low-Level Al Qaeda Attacks: Scattered Followers Pose New Threat.” The Washington Post, Sept. 9, 2002.
James Risen and Dexter Filkins, “Though Scattered, Qaeda Fighters Said to Return to Afghanistan.” The New York Times, Sept. 10, 2002.
Lawrence Wright, “The Man Behind Bin Laden: How an Egyptian Doctor Became a Master of Terror.” The New Yorker, Sept. 16, 2002.
U.S. Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001.
Al-Jihad Reference, Military.com.
“Al-Jihad al-Islami" Special Section: Terrorist Attacks on America. Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.
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