It was speculated at the time that Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri was among those trapped by the Pakistan Army, but he either escaped or was never among these fighters.
In January 2006, US forces in Afghanistan carried out an airstrike in Bajaur's Damadola village which US officials said was aimed at al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Although Ayman al-Zawahiri was "the one in front", Al-Sharif was the actual leader.
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al-Zawahiri convened a Sharia court, where Musab confessed he had been given explosives by the Egyptians which he was told to detonate at the next Shura council meeting.
In 2008, shortly after the election of Barack Obama, the first African-American president, al-Qaeda released a videotape that included a statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who called Obama a "house Negro" and contrasted him with "honorable Black Americans" such as Malcolm X.
Hambali obliged by introducing a U.S.-educated JI member, Yazid Sufaat, to Ayman al Zawahiri in Kandahar.
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In early November 2001, the Taliban government announced they were bestowing official Afghan citizenship on him, as well as Bin Laden, Zawahiri, Saif al-Adl and Mohammed Atef.
It is "likely that the notion of suicide bombing" was inspired by Hezbollah as al-Zawahiri had been to Iran to raise money, and had sent his underling Ali Mohamed, "among others, to Lebanon to train with Hezbollah".
2 April 2008: An online audiofile, in which Al-Zawahiri called the United Nations an enemy of Islam, was released via IntelCenter by As-Sahab (according to IntelCenter).
Zawahiri compared Obama to Malcolm X, and asserted that Obama, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice were the kind of black Americans that Malcolm X would have called "house negroes".
He attended two meetings from August 11–20 in 1988, along with Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mohammed Atef, Jamal al-Fadl, Wael Hamza Julaidan, and Mohammed Loay Bayazid and eight others, to discuss the founding of "al-Qaeda".
According to author Ron Suskind, in his book The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11, the plan for this attack was called off about forty-five days before execution by Al-Qaeda commander Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Italian and Spanish arrest warrants suggest he became a member of the terrorist organization "Egyptian Islamic Jihad", one of al-Qaeda's backbone groups, which was led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's right hand man and mentor.
In the video, Moktar Ali Zubeyr pledges his organization's allegiance to al-Qaeda and Ayman al-Zawahiri accepts.
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A video, with English subtitles, was released severely criticizing President-elect Barack Obama.
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He demanded the release of Ramzi Yousef, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, and others as well as the end of air strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Gaza in exchange for Warren Weinstein's release.