Al Qaeda’s new leader Seif al-Adel has $10 million bounty on his head

Dubai: Seif al-Adel, the new supreme leader of the al Qaeda is a former Egyptian special forces officer, who has been a high-ranking member of the terror network has a reward of $10 million on his head. He is now the “uncontested” leader of the militant group, according to a new UN report on the organisation.

Al Qaeda has not formally named a successor for Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was believed to have been killed in a US missile strike in Kabul last year, dealing a blow to the organisation since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

According to US intelligence, Zawahiri’s succession remains unclear. But, the United Nations report assessing risks from the group said: “In discussions in November and December, many Member States took the view that Seif al-Adel is already operating as the de facto and uncontested leader of the group.”

The death of Zawahiri put pressure on the terror group to choose a crucial leader who can carefully plan deadly operations and run a jihadi network, experts on al Qaeda say.

The new leader is known to keep a relatively low profile, unlike his slain predecessors who maintained a high profile with fiery videos broadcast around the globe threatening the United States.

Experts say Adel planned attacks from the shadows as he helped turn al Qaeda into the world’s deadliest militant group. He was indicted and charged in November 1998 by a US federal grand jury for his role in the bomb attacks on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 civilians and wounded more than 5,000 others.

There are few photos of him, aside from three pictures – including a very serious black and white image of him on the FBI most wanted list.

Beyond the operations in Africa, his training camps and link to the killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002, according to U.S. investigators, little else is known about Adel.

According to the US State Department Adel is based in Iran. The department’s Rewards for Justice programme is offering up to $10 million for information on Adel, who it says is a member of the “al Qaeda’s leadership council” and heads the organisation’s military committee.

He takes over an al Qaeda that has become highly decentralised since the group carried out its most spectacular operation, the September 11, 2001 airplane attacks against the United States which killed nearly 3,000 people.

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