United Nations report identifies new al Qaeda leader with $10 million bounty

Correction: The State Department is offering a $10 million bounty for Saif al-Adel. A previous version of this article contained incorrect information.

The United Nations this week identified a new de facto leader of the terrorist group al Qaeda, a former Egyptian special forces officer and close affiliate of Osama bin Laden with a $10 million bounty on his head.

A Monday report named Saif al-Adel, a high-ranking al Qaeda official, as the operating and uncontested leader of the organization, as recognized by members of the United Nations.

In late July, a U.S. drone strike ordered by President Biden struck and killed al Qaeda’s former leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Afghanistan. But his death was not recognized by the organization.

Al Qaeda has not officially named a successor to al-Zawahiri, and al-Adel is not officially recognized as the leader, according to the U.N.

“Most judged a key factor to be the continued presence of [al-Adel] in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the UN report reads. “This raised difficult theological and operational questions” for al Qaeda.

The State Department is offering a $10 million bounty for information leading to the arrest or conviction of al-Adel, who is wanted for the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which killed 224 people and injured thousands of others.

According to publicly known information, al-Adel is an Egyptian citizen who served in the nation’s army before he became a key military trainer for al Qaeda in the 1990s. He trained the fighters involved in the ambush of U.S. helicopters and troops in Mogadishu, Somalia, which became the basis for the popular book and movie “Black Hawk Down.”

He also helped train some of the hijackers involved in the deadly 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York.

In 2003, Iranian authorities placed al-Adel on house arrest, but he was released from custody in 2015 during an exchange for an Iranian diplomat captured by al Qaeda.

The U.S. government says al-Adel was also key to the formation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.