A recently leaked photo shows three top leadersAl-Qaeda, includingsword of justiceThe man many believe to be the successor to the late al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. They are in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Several US government classifications have previously indicated the presence of senior al-Qaeda leaders in Iran, but this photo provided rare visual evidence.
The image from left to right shows Saif al-Adl, Abu Muhammad al-Masri and Abu al-Khair al-Masri. The photo casts doubt on assertions that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence kept these and other al-Qaeda leaders under strict house arrest.
Who posted it and when was it taken?
The photo was originally posted by the Anonymous Twitter account on August 26, 2022. Two US intelligence officials independently confirmed to the magazineFDD’s Long War JournalThe authenticity of the photo, as well as the identities of the three men. Intelligence officials said the photo was taken inTehranbefore 2015
EXPOSED! In the picture – Al-Qaeda Shura Council in Iran
فضيحة! بالصورة – مجلس شورى القاعدة في إيران @SimNasr @AlArabiya_Brk @youm7 @NicolasQuenel @alhurranews @skynewsarabia @trtworld @ReutersAsia @adhamiyahnews @kasimf @YZaatreh @HamidHadeed @omartvsd @malkobaysi @liqaa_maki pic.twitter.com/7uT56pgSCo— Anonymous (@Sw0rdOfAnon) August 26, 2022
Validation
This photo has also been verified by Jassim News, which it published with a higher resolution and confirmed the appearance ofsword of justiceIn it she said that according to her assessment he is the third person who appears in the picture.
Jassim’s news also revealed that the photo was confirmed by Al-Qaeda sources. The long war journal says it has verified the image’s authenticity from Western intelligence sources.
#أنباء_جاسم #إيران #عاجل pic.twitter.com/M6H2o62JjL
— أنباء جاسم (@anbajassim) August 31, 2022
Saif al-Adl, who was originally a member of the Egyptian Jihad, a terrorist group officially merged withAl-QaedaPrior to 9/11, he had long been a prominent al-Qaeda leader. Al-Adl is known to have taken refuge in Iran with other major terrorist leaders.
Al-Adl served as the general military commander of al-Qaeda and a member of the Central Decision-Making Council. He is now believed to be inside Afghanistan.
The account, which published the rare photo of Saif al-Adl and senior al-Qaeda leaders, also published what appears to be a map showing the places between which the latter moved.
sword of justice
A picture of the places where Saif al-Adl is expected to have moved (Twitter)
Al-Adl’s relations with Iran and its main proxy, Hezbollah, date back to the early 1990s. During the trial of the US Embassy bombing in early 2001, an al-Qaeda defector named Jamal al-Fadl identified al-Adl as an al-Qaeda member who received explosives training from Iran and Hezbollah.
The 9/11 Commission later found that al-Qaeda used this training to develop the “tactical expertise” needed to carry out the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania embassies bombings, which were modeled on Hezbollah’s attacks on US and Western forces in Lebanon in the early 1980s.
Abu Muhammad al-Masri, also known as Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, was also a prominent member of the Egyptian Jihad Movement and was complicit in the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania embassies bombings. He served as a key leader of al-Qaeda and was a member of its Central Council.
He was in the line of succession to lead al-Qaeda before he was shot dead in Tehran on August 7, 2020, the 22nd anniversary of the bombings of the two embassies in Africa.
Abu Khair al-Masri, whose real name is Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abd al-Rahman, was also an original member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement before he rose to the highest echelons of al-Qaeda. The Washington Post reported that US intelligence had identified Abu Khair as the head of al-Qaeda’s board of directors.
Abu Khair also previously served as Al-Qaeda’s “Head of External Relations”, and in that capacity was the “Taliban Liaison Officer” in Afghanistan.
And Abu Khair moved, along with a number ofSenior al-Qaeda leaders, to Syria in 2016 to reorganize the country’s al-Qaeda network and unite rival jihadist factions. At the time, al-Qaeda identified Abu Khair as al-Zawahiri’s “prosecutor general.” Abu Khair did not live long in Syria, as he was killed in a US drone strike in Idlib on February 26, 2017.
Seniors have been documentedAl-Qaeda leaders inside Iranby the US government in many ratings over the years. Other senior leaders known to have operated inside Iran include Abd al-Rahman al-Mughrabi, Yassin al-Suri, Saad bin Laden (now deceased) and Mustafa Hamid.
In addition to monitoring senior al-Qaeda figures inside Iran, the US Treasury and State Departments have repeatedly exposed Iran’s “secret deal” with terrorists. Under an agreement with the Iranian regime, al-Qaeda has maintained a “core facilitation pipeline” inside Iran.
According to the newspaper, the Iranians have allowed this facilitation network to operate even though Iran and al-Qaeda are on opposite sides of the conflict in Syria and Yemen.