Refa'i Ahmed Taha (; June 24, 1954 – April 5, 2016) or Refa'i Ahmed Taha Musa or Ahmed Refa'i Taha, alias Abu Yasser al-Masri () was an Egyptian leader of a terrorist component of

al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (, "Islamic Group") is an Egyptian Sunni Islamist movement, and is considered a terrorism, terrorist organization by the United Kingdom and the European Union, but was removed from the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations i ...

, having succeeded "The Blind Sheikh"

Omar Abdel-Rahman Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptians, Egyptian Islamist militant who served a Life imprisonment, life senten ...

in that role after the latter's arrest in 1993 and

imprisonment for life Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

in 1995. He was one of 14 people subjected to

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism, euphemistically-named policy of state-sponsored abduction in a foreign jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The best-known use of extraordinary rendition is in a United States-led program during th ...

by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

prior to the 2001 declaration of a War on Terror.

History

The listBanned entity list

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, US Treasury Department of banned entities maintained by the

US Treasury Department The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

puts his date of birth at 24 June 1954, and lists additional aliases of his, including 'Issam 'Ali Muhammad 'Abdallah, ( عصام علي محمد عبد الله ). He was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the current indictment of 21 members of

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

and affiliated groups, for various roles in the

1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 220 people were killed in two nearly simultaneous car bomb, truck bomb explosions in two East African capital cities, one at the Embassy of the Uni ...

in Africa. Earlier in 1998, Taha was one of five people who signed, or are alleged to have signed, a threatening so-called ''fatwa'' against the United States and Israel and their civilians; the other signatories included

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

and

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...

; see

Fatāwā of Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden authored two fatwas in the late 1990s. The first was published in August 1996 and the second in February 1998. At the time, bin Laden was not a wanted man in any country except his native Saudi Arabia, and was not yet known as ...

. In 2000, Taha appeared in a video with bin Laden and al-Zawahiri which threatened a violence over the imprisonment of Omar Abdel-Rahman.Background Information on Terrorist Groups
part of the US State Department's report ''Patterns of Global Terrorism - 2000'' Taha was also wanted in his native

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, where he had been sentenced to death in the 1999 case of the

Returnees from Albania The case of the Returnees from Albania was a massive criminal trial in an Egyptian military court from February to April 1999. The trial is one of the principal sources of information about Sunni terrorist groups in the 1990s, especially al-Gama'a ...

.Egypt's most wanted
, al-Ahram Weekly, 18 October 2001 In October 2001 Taha was arrested at the

Damascus airport Damascus International Airport () is the international airport of Damascus, the capital of Syria and the home base of the national flag carrier airline, Syrian Air. Damascus International Airport serves as a primary gateway to Syria and is one ...

(after fleeing the post-

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

invasion of Afghanistan Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States declared the war on terror and subsequently led a multinational military operation against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The stated goal was to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had exe ...

, quite probably) and quietly extradited to Egypt.Al-Qaida: Dead or captured
''

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

''; see October 2001 Al-Qaeda claimed in 2006 that he is still alive and was in custody''

As-Sahab As-Sahab Media (Arabic: السحاب, "The Cloud") is the official media wing of Al-Qaeda's core leadership based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It produces media featuring original sermons and speeches by senior Al-Qaeda commanders as well as foo ...

'' (al-Qaeda) internet video with al-Zawahiri and al-Hukaymah, 5 August 2006 while some other al-Qaeda propaganda still holds up

(who died in the

ADX Florence United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (abbreviated as USP Florence ADMAX; commonly known as ADX Florence, Florence Supermax, and the Alcatraz of the Rockies) is a United States federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, op ...

prison) as the "spiritual" leader of the Egyptian side of that body. Official sources did not reveal where Taha is, or even whether he was still alive.Refai Taha Musa
at ''Global Security'', cites official sources However, it was revealed in 2012 that he was freed from prison after the fall of the regime of

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...

, and was present at the

protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...

in Cairo in front of the American embassy on 11 September 2012. According to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', in a November 2014 interview recorded in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, he asked "What are we waiting for?" and "We will not confront this

gyptian Windel Beneto Edwards (born 25 October 1983), better known by his stage name Gyptian (), is a Jamaican reggae singer. He often appears with roots reggae songs within the reggae subgenre dancehall. Early life Born to a Seventh-day Adventist mo ...

regime with bare chests. If they take up arms, then we will take up arms".

Death

He was killed in an American drone strike in the town of

Idlib Idlib (, ; also spelt Idleb or Edlib) is a city in northwestern Syria, and is the capital of the Idlib Governorate. It has an elevation of nearly above sea level, and is southwest of Aleppo. It is located near the border with Turkey. History ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

where he was working with

Jabhat al-Nusra Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra or Jabhat Nusrat Ahl al-Sham, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, and also later known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham was a Salafi-jihadist organization that fought against Ba'athist regime forces ...

, the Syria wing of

Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

around the 5th April 2016. According to ''

'', he had crossed into Syria from Turkey only five days before. The Egyptian

Hani al-Sibai Hani Mohammed Yusuf al-Siba'i (هاني محمد يوسف السباعي) (born 1 March 1961 in Qaylubiyah, Egypt) is an Egyptian Islamic scholar who was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and now lives in London as a political refugee. Effort ...

, director of the Maqrizi Center for Historical Studies in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

commenting on his death to ''

'', said Taha had "got what he wished for artyrdom he met his

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

in an American drone strike". Taha was shown in an Al-Qaeda video released by Al Qaeda leader

called "Three Sheikhs of Jihad".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taha, Ahmed Refai 1954 births 2016 deaths Assassinated al-Nusra Front members Al-Nusra Front members Egyptian al-Qaeda members Egyptian prisoners sentenced to death Prisoners sentenced to death by Egypt People extradited from Syria People extradited to Egypt People imprisoned on terrorism charges Leaders of jihadist groups Deaths by American drone strikes in Syria