U.N. member states say that terrorist group al-Qaeda has a new leader, according to a report circulated on Monday.
The report states Sayf al-‘Adl, Osama bin-Laden’s former security head, is already leading the terrorist group.
The report was written by the U.N.’s Security Council and said that no announcement was made regarding the replacement by al-Qaeda after the death of its former head Ayman al-Zawahri following a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, last August.
“But in discussions in November and December, many U.N. member states took the view that Sayf al-‘Adl is already operating as the de facto and uncontested leader of the group,” the report says.
The report suggests that al-‘Adl has a “continued presence” in Iran.
Sayf al-’Adl has been listed on the U.N. sanctions blacklist as Egyptian-born Mohammed Salahaldin Abd El Halim Zidan since January 2001, the panel said. He is described in the U.N. listing as taking over as military commander of al-Qaida, also al-Qaeda, following the death of Mohammed Atef—one of bin Laden’s top aides—in a U.S. attack in November 2001.
In addition to being bin Laden’s security chief, the U.N. says that Sayf al-’Adl taught terrorists to use explosives and trained some of the hijackers involved in the attack in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. It says he also trained Somali fighters who killed 18 U.S. servicemen in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.
According to the report, the threat from al-Qaeda, the ISIS terrorist group, and their affiliates “remains high in conflict zones and neighboring countries,” with Africa emerging in recent years “as the continent where the harm done by terrorism is developing most rapidly and extensively.”
The panel said ISIS leadership has also become a question following the group’s Nov. 30 announcement that Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi had died in a battle the previous month, the group’s second leader to be killed in 2022.
“The new leader was announced as Abu al-Husain al-Husaini al-Qurashi, and his true identity is not yet known,” the experts said.
Member states noted numerous pledges of allegiance to Abu al-Husain by ISIS “affiliates far and wide, without specific knowledge of his identity,” they said.
The report notes that the convergence of armed conflict, terrorist attacks, and transnational organized crime should be taken into consideration in counter-terrorism efforts against al-Qaeda.
It estimates that al-Qaeda’s cash reserves held in Iraq and Syria are between $25 million to $50 million.
It also notes that al-Qaeda has access to weapons in the Middle East and Africa, and that transnational crime networks are providing it with weapons as well.
Al-Qaeda also used unmanned drones for surveillance and attacks with “accuracy.” Mozambique has reported shooting down two al-Qaeda surveillance drones.
The report also states that al-Qaeda is using the internet for propaganda and recruiting new fighters.
