Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
|
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah (also known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri; June 6, 1963 - August 7, 2020) was an Egyptian senior member of al-Qaeda and one of the masterminds behind the 1998 US Embassy bombings. At the time of his death, he was believed to have been second-in-command to the al-Qaeda organization, having been responsible for organizing terrorist training camps. He was one of the 22 original members on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.
Terrorism history edit
During the Soviet-Afghan War, he joined the Mujahideen. After the war, he was not allowed to return to his native Egypt and stayed in Afghanistan where he met Osama Bin Laden. Abdullah helped high-ranking al-Qaeda member Saif al-Adel by providing intelligence and military training to those associated with al-Qaeda in Somalia and Sudan in 1992. Abdullah allegedly operated al-Qaeda training camps in 1996 through 1998 in Afghanistan. Abdullah was also responsible for forging a passport for former al-Qaeda member Mohammed Odeh so he could get to Afghanistan and meet with Osama Bin Laden before the 1998 United States embassy bombings.
Arrest edit
Sometime later, Abdullah was placed under arrest in Iran. Former al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith Confirmed that Abdullah was arrested and placed under house arrest in Iran. In 2015, Abdullah and other senior al-Qaeda members were released from Iranian custody in exchange for an Iranian diplomat kidnapped by al-Qaeda.
Death edit
On 7 August 2020, Israeli agents at the behest of the United States shot Abdullah to death while driving in the Pasdaran neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. His daughter, who was married to Bin Laden’s son Hamza, was killed with him. His death was not reported until 3 months later when The New York Times broke the news. At the time of his death, Iranian news sources claimed he was a Lebanese academic under the name of "Habib Dawood" with ties to Hezbollah with Afghan news source Shamsad News also confirming his death. The Iranian government denied he was killed in Iran, with its Foreign Ministey spokesperson stating the US and Israel "try to tie Iran to such groups by lying and leaking false information to the media".