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Reports: Caretaker leader takes over al-Qaida

A specialist on al-Qaida says an Egyptian militant was acting as operational leader pending deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahri's expected appointment as successor to Osama bin Laden.
Saif Al-Adel is second from left in the top row. Also in the top row, from left: Ali Saeed Bin Ali al-Hooriyeh, Al-Adel, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, and Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso. Bottom row, from left: Ayman al-Zawahiri, Anwar al-Awlaki, and Adam Yahiye Gadahn.
Saif Al-Adel is second from left in the top row. Also in the top row, from left: Ali Saeed Bin Ali al-Hooriyeh, Al-Adel, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, and Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso. Bottom row, from left: Ayman al-Zawahiri, Anwar al-Awlaki, and Adam Yahiye Gadahn.AP, Reuters, and FBI Handout File photos
/ Source: msnbc.com staff and news service reports

A veteran Egyptian militant has become the new acting leader of al-Qaida, according to an expert and media reports.

A leading specialist on al-Qaida said on Tuesday that Saif al-Adel was acting as an interim operational leader pending the expected appointment of deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahri as successor to Osama bin Laden.

Noman Benotman, a former associate of bin Laden and now an analyst with Britain's Quilliam Foundation think tank, told Reuters that the organization was collecting pledges of loyalty to Zawahri.

However there were some conflicting reports about what will happen next.

The Al-Jazeera news network reported that while Adel was named interim leader, another man, Mustafa al-Yemeni, would direct operations.

'Major blow'The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper reported that al-Qaida appeared to be in the middle of a power struggle over the succession. It said Zawahri seemed to have been demoted, describing Adel's appointment as a "major blow."

The News newspaper in Pakistan said none of bin Laden's sons "has shown willingness to join any post" in al-Qaida.

U.S. prosecutors say Adel is one of al-Qaida's leading military chiefs, and helped to plan the bomb attacks against the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998 and set up training camps for the organization in Sudan and Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Benotman said the information was based on his own contacts in jihadist circles.

"This role that he has assumed is not as overall leader, but he is in charge in operational and military terms," he said. "This has happened in response to the impatience displayed by jihadists online who have been extremely worried about the delay in announcing a successor."

"It is hoped that now they will calm down. It also paves the way for Zawahri to take over," he said, adding that Adel and Zawahri were close.

Benotman, who knew Adel personally when both were active as militants in Afghanistan, said Adel "already occupied a role akin to chief of staff" even before bin Laden's death in a U.S. raid in Pakistan on May 2.

Adel was believed to have fled to Iran after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on the United States, and they were subsequently held under a form of house arrest there, according to some media reports.

Iranian authorities are reported by Arab media to have released him from custody about a year ago, and he then moved back to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

Some analysts say that Adel, widely believed to have been in remote areas of northern Pakistan over the past year, has since returned to Iran, or to Afghanistan, in recent weeks.

Benotman, who is a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which tried and failed to topple Libyan leader Moammar Gahafi in the 1990s, said it was taking time to obtain pledges of loyalty to Zawahri from the far flung affiliates and branches of al-Qaida.