US Says Iran-based Saif al-Adel is New Al-Qaeda Chief

This undated picture released October 10, 2001 by the FBI shows Egyptian Saif al-Adel. Handout / FBI/AFP/File
This undated picture released October 10, 2001 by the FBI shows Egyptian Saif al-Adel. Handout / FBI/AFP/File
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US Says Iran-based Saif al-Adel is New Al-Qaeda Chief

This undated picture released October 10, 2001 by the FBI shows Egyptian Saif al-Adel. Handout / FBI/AFP/File
This undated picture released October 10, 2001 by the FBI shows Egyptian Saif al-Adel. Handout / FBI/AFP/File

Saif al-Adel, an Iran-based Egyptian, has become the head of Al-Qaeda following the July 2022 death of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the US State Department said Wednesday.

"Our assessment aligns with that of the UN -- that al-Qaeda's new de facto leader Saif al-Adel is based in Iran," a state department spokesperson said.

The United Nations report released Tuesday said that the predominant view of member states is that Adel is now the group's leader, "representing continuity for now."

But the group has not formally declared him "emir" because of sensitivity to the concerns of the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, who haven't wanted to acknowledge that Zawahiri was killed by a US rocket in a home in Kabul last year, according to the UN report.

In addition, the UN report said, Al-Qaeda is sensitive to the issue of Adel residing in largely Shiite Iran, AFP reported.

"His location raises questions that have a bearing on Al-Qaeda's ambitions to assert leadership of a global movement in the face of challenges from ISIL," the UN report said, referring to another name for the rival group.

Adel, 62, is a former Egyptian special forces lieutenant-colonel and figure in the old guard of Al-Qaeda.

He helped build the group's operational capacity and trained some of the hijackers who took part in the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, according to the US Counter Extremism Project.

He has been in Iran since 2002 or 2003, at first under house arrest but later free enough to make trips to Pakistan, according to Ali Soufan, a former FBI counter-terrorism investigator.

"Saif is one of the most experienced professional soldiers in the worldwide jihadi movement, and his body bears the scars of battle," Soufan wrote in a 2021 article for the West Point Combating Terrorism Center's CTC Journal.

"When he acts, he does so with ruthless efficiency," he said.



India Fires Missiles into Pakistani Territory in what Islamabad Calls 'Act of War'

A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
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India Fires Missiles into Pakistani Territory in what Islamabad Calls 'Act of War'

A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
A private security guard walks through rubble of a damaged building after a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, a town in Pakistan's Punjab province, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations early Wednesday, killing at least 26 people including a child, in what Pakistan's leader called an act of war.
India said it struck infrastructure used by militants linked to last month’s massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
Pakistan claimed it shot down several Indian fighter jets in retaliation as two planes fell onto villages in India-controlled Kashmir. At least seven civilians were also killed in the region by Pakistani shelling, Indian police and medics said.
Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbors since the attack, which India has blamed Pakistan for backing. Islamabad has denied the accusation.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Wednesday’s airstrikes and said his country would retaliate.
“Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,” The Associated Press quoted Sharif as saying.

Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesperson, said in a statement late Tuesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum restraint because the world could not “afford a military confrontation” between India and Pakistan.
Indian politicians from different political parties lauded the strikes. “Victory to Mother India,” India’s defense minister, Rajnath Singh, wrote on X.
India’s main opposition Congress party called for national unity and said it was “extremely proud” of the country’s army. “We applaud their resolute resolve and courage,” Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
India's army said the operation was named “Sindoor,” a Hindi word for the bright red vermillion powder worn by married Hindu women on their forehead and hair, referring to the wives who saw their husbands killed in front of them.
The missiles hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, killing at least 26 people, including women and children, said Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif.
Officials said another 38 people were injured by the strikes, and another five people were killed in Pakistan during exchanges of fire across the border later in the day.
Sharif said the Indian jets also damaged infrastructure at a dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, calling it a violation of international norms.
India’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.”
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” the statement said, adding that “India has demonstrated considerable restraint."
Last month's attack on tourists was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.

The Indian police and medics said seven civilians were killed and 30 wounded by Pakistani shelling in Poonch district near the highly militarized Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries. Officials said several homes also were damaged in the shelling.
The Indian army said Pakistani troops “resorted to arbitrary firing,” including gunfire and artillery shelling, across the frontier.
Shortly after India’s strikes, aircraft fell onto two villages in India-controlled Kashmir.
Sharif, the Pakistani military spokesperson, said the country’s air force shot down five Indian jets in retaliation for the strikes. There was no immediate comment from India about Pakistan’s claim.