Saif Al-Adel - Militant Connections

Militant Connections

Several months before the 1998 embassy bombings, Adel was helping Bin Laden move his followers from Najim Jihad to Tarnak Farms. The group had begrudgingly agreed to care for the troublesome Canadian 16-year old Abdurahman Khadr, since his father was away and his mother couldn't control his drinking, smoking and violent outbursts. However, while in Kabul, Adel was approached by bin Laden and asked to take Abdurahman to the bus station and have him sent back to his family's home.

In approximately 2000, he was living in the Karte Parwan district of Kabul. On the local walkie-talkie communications in the city, he was identified as #1.

On September 9, 2001 Adel was approached by Feroz Ali Abbasi who said he was so impressed by the killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud that he wanted to volunteer for something similar.

In early November 2001, the Taliban government announced they were bestowing official Afghan citizenship on him, as well as Bin Laden, Zawahiri, Mohammed Atef, and Shaykh Asim Abdulrahman. During the American bombardment of Kandahar, Adel was present and witnessed the deaths of Abu-Ali al-Yafi'i and his wife, Abu-Usamah al-Ta'zi with his wife and two children, the wife of Rayyan al-Ta'zi, the wife of Abu-Usamah al-Kini, and the wife of Al-Barra al-Hijazi who was arrested in Morocco before the Casablanca bombings.

On November 18, Adel was working with Abu-Muhammad al-Abyad, Abd-al-Rahman al-Masri, and Abu-Usamah al-Filastini, Abu-Husayn al-Masri and Faruq al-Suri; all of whom were staying in his empty house with him at night. In the early morning hours of November 19, he woke them up just minutes before the al-Wafa charity building was bombed, phoning friends in the area, he learned that Abdul Wahid had been killed in the explosion. He later learned that Asim al-Yamani from Al Farouq training camp and the elderly Abu-Abd-al-Rahman Al-Abiy had run to the charity's headquarters and begun rescuing survivors and pulling out the dead bodies. The pair had then agreed the area was not safe, and sent their women to the smaller villages, while they used their two cars to try and unpack their house's contents. An American jet bombed the pair, killing al-Yamani and wounding al-Abiy. As it was the third day of Ramadan, the group in Adel's house began to prepare and eat Suhoor, but were interrupted by a cruise missile striking 100 metres away, destroying an empty house belonging to an Afghan Arab family, and a Taliban barracks. They gathered their belongings and quickly left, fearing another strike. Adel went to the hospital, where he visited the wounded al-Abiy, and arranged for him to be transferred to a hospital in Pakistan.

He was told by Abu Ali al-Suri that the American aircraft had machinegunned women leaving the city on the road to Banjway, and assured him that he would send aid. A convoy of 4-6 Corolla Fielders set out to Banjway, followed closely by American helicopters. The Americans attacked the lead vehicle, killing Abu-Ali al-Yafi'i, his wife, four women, and two children - and the second vehicle, killing Suraqah al-Yamani and Hamzah al-Suri. Abu-Ali al-Maliki quickly veered off the road with the third vehicle, turning off his headlights, and drove into the mountains escaping the attack.

Since al-Qaeda's military chief Mohammed Atef was killed in 2001, it has sometimes been said that Adel would be his natural successor in that role.

Saif al-Adel is believed to have ordered the 2003 Riyadh compound bombings.

In 2004, he published a "terrorist manual" entitled "The Base of the Vanguard", an Arabic pun on the phrases al-Qaeda ("the base") and the Vanguards of Conquest.

Saif al-Adel was a key source in a 2005 book on al-Qaeda's global strategy by journalist Fouad Hussein.