A fierce succession battle appears to be gripping the senior ranks of al-Qaida in the wake of the death of leader Osama bin Laden earlier this month, pitting regional affiliates against the central "hardcore" of the organisation.
Reports from Pakistan named an Egyptian former special forces officer known as Saif al-Adel as the acting leader of al-Qaida.
Al-Adel, who is in his late 40s, is a veteran militant who was close to bin Laden in the 1990s before being detained in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. According to Noman Benotman, a former Libyan militant now living in London, al-Adel was released from Iranian detention and returned to Pakistan last year.
The report in the Pakistani The News newspaper identified al-Adel as having been chosen as "interim leader" of al-Qaida after a meeting at "an undisclosed location". It also said that "none of sons of Osama Bin Laden has shown willingness" to take up a formal position within the organisation.
One of the 54-year-old al-Qaida leader's adult sons, Khaled, was killed with his father in the raid on Abbottabad. Others have been groomed for leadership roles but are currently too young or too inexperienced to command any real support.
If confirmed, the appointment of al-Adel is a major blow to bin Laden's close associate Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian extremist strategist who has long been seen as the group's number two.
Al-Zawahiri is reported to have been given the important, and usually shortlived, role of director of external or international operations for the group. This would nonetheless be something of a demotion for a man who was bin Laden's closest associate and a major figure in his own right.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/18/al-qaida-succession-battle-saif-al-adel-acting-leader
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