Kiosk360. Abderrahmane Al Maghrebi, son-in-law and principal adviser to the former head of Al-Qaeda, is on the shortlist of candidates to succeed him. Explanations in this press review taken from the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia.
He is nicknamed Abderrahmane Al Maghrebi. As his name suggests, he is Moroccan and he is the favorite successor of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, former leader of Al-Qaeda whom the American army has just neutralized.
According to the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, which reports the information in its edition of Thursday August 4, quoting a center for international studies specializing in terrorism affairs, this Moroccan, Mohamed Abattay of his real name, is both son-in-law and principal adviser to the former chief of al-Qaeda.
But, always quoting the same source, his CV does not stop there. A longtime member of al-Qaeda, he is currently director of the terrorist organization’s branch in Iran. He was also for a long period in charge of the organisation’s media and propaganda arm, Assahab. Abderrahmane Al Maghrebi was already considered within Al-Qaeda itself, in 2011, as a rising star of the organization since.
Al Maghrebi has indeed occupied high-ranking positions in the terrorist organization. He was the director general of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, already in 2012. After years of international counter-terrorism pressure, he moved to Iran, where he continued to oversee the organization’s activities around the world. .
As head of Al-Qaeda’s external communications office, Al Maghrebi coordinates activities with the organization’s affiliates and members. In January 2021, the US State Department classified this Moroccan as an “international terrorist”, underlines the daily. His head has been priced.
The government of the United States offers, in fact, a reward of up to 7 million dollars for any information on Mohamed Abbatay, better known under the name of Abderrahmane Al Maghrebi.
Most often described as the “fox of Al-Qaeda”, this Moroccan managed to deceive the American services for a long time. He was even considered dead for a long time. His time in Iran and the conditions under which he returned to that country have remained an enigma. He is not, in fact, one of the members of the organization’s leadership who went to this country in 2001, after the fall of the Taliban regime. Nor does he appear on the lists of Al-Qaeda leaders who came to this country as part of a political transaction between the terrorist organization and Tehran, although he occupies a very sensitive position in the within Al-Qaeda, notes the daily.
According to Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, Abderrahmane Al Maghrebi is not the only potential successor to Al Zawahiri. On the shortlist of candidates for the post, there is also the Egyptian Saif Al-Adel who is part of the “central command” and Yazid Mebrak, leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), as well as Ahmed Diriye, the leader of the jihadist branch in East Africa.
Recall that the leader of Al-Qaeda, the Egyptian, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, was killed in the night from Saturday to Sunday last, in Afghanistan by an American drone strike. Zawahiri was one of the most wanted terrorists in the world and the United States promised 25 million dollars for any information allowing him to be found.
He had taken the head of the jihadist nebula in 2011, after the death of Osama Bin Laden, killed by an American commando in Pakistan. Untraceable for more than ten years, he was considered one of the masterminds of the attacks of September 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.