/ Source: Reuters
Egyptian-born doctor and surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri has succeeded Osama bin Laden, according to a statement posted on a website.
Here are some key facts about al-Zawahri:
- Al-Zawahri has been described as Osama bin Laden's closest mentor.
- Al-Zawahri and bin Laden met in the mid-1980s when both were in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar to support mujahedeen guerrillas fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.
- Born in 1951 to a prominent Cairo family, al-Zawahri was the son of a pharmacology professor and grandson of the grand imam of Al Azhar, one of the most important mosques in the Arab world.
- He graduated from Egypt's most prestigious medical school in 1974.
- When the militant Egyptian Islamic Jihad was founded in 1973, he joined. When members posed as soldiers and assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981, he was among 301 people arrested. He went on trial but was cleared of involvement in Sadat's death. He did, however, spend three years in jail for possession of an unlicensed pistol.
- Al-Zawahri has broadcast dozens of messages since the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.