Mohammed Atef (; born Sobhi Abd Al Aziz Mohamed El Gohary Abu Sitta, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri and al-Khabir; 1944 – November 2001) was an Egyptian militant and prominent military chief 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 a deputy of

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 ...

, although Atef's role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years. He was killed in a US airstrike in November 2001. Atef served two years in the

Egyptian Air Force The Egyptian Air Force (EAF) () is the aviation branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces that is responsible for all airborne defence missions and operates all military aircraft, including those used in support of the Egyptian Army, Egyptian Navy ...

and became an agricultural engineer. He was also a police officer and a member of the group

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ; ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad () and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and then the Jihad Group, or the Jihad Organization, was an Egyptian Islamist group active ...

before he moved to Afghanistan to repel the Soviet invasion, while operating from

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

.Raman, B. South Asia Analysis Group, , November 20, 2001 He has been credited as having convinced

Abdullah Azzam Abdullah Yusuf Azzam () was a Palestinian-Jordanian Islamist jihadist and theologian. Belonging to the Salafi movement within Sunni Islam, he and his family fled from what had been the Jordanian-annexed West Bank after the 1967 Six-Day War a ...

to abandon his life and devote himself to preaching

jihad ''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...

at this time. Atef was sent to an

Afghan training camp 300px, Terrorists who trained at camps in Afghanistan and fought in insurgencies around the world during the 1990s An Afghan jihadist camp, or an Afghan training camp, is a term used to describe a camp or facility used for militant training loca ...

where he met

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 ...

, who later introduced him to Osama bin Laden. He attended two meetings from August 11 to 20 in 1988, along with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri,

Mamdouh Mahmud Salim Mamdouh Mahmud Salim (, ''Mamdūḥ Maḥmūd Sālim''; b. 1958 in Sudan) is a Kurdish co-founder of the Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda. He was arrested on 16 September 1998 near Munich.

Jamal al-Fadl Jamal Ahmed al-FadlJamal al-Fadl testimony, United States vs. Osama bin Laden et al., trial transcript, Day 2, Feb. 6, 2001. (, ; born 1963) is a Sudanese militant and former associate of Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. Al-Fadl was recruite ...

Wa'el Hamza Julaidan Wa'el Hamza Julaidan (, kunya: ''Abu al-Hasan''; born 22 February 1958 in Medina, Saudi Arabia) is one of the original founders of al-Qaeda in August 1988. He had previously (1984) established "the Service Office" or ''Maktab al-Khidamat '' in ...

, and

Mohammed Loay Bayazid Born in Syria, Mohammed Loay Bayazid is an American citizen alleged to have been a founding member of al-Qaeda, although he has cooperated with American authorities and claims his role in the group has been over-stated. He was alleged to have been ...

and eight others, to discuss the founding of "al-Qaeda". Bin Laden later sent a letter to Mohammed Loay Bayazid informing him that Atef and

Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri (; May 1950 – 21 May 1996) was the ''nom de guerre''Saudi riyals monthly, the same as they had been given for their work in

Maktab al-Khidamat The Maktab al-Khidamat, also Maktab Khadamāt al-Mujāhidīn al-'Arab (Arabic: مكتب الخدمات or مكتب خدمات المجاهدين العرب, MAK), also known as the Afghan Services Bureau, was founded in 1984 by Abdullah Azzam, W ...

In Sudan

Atef followed al-Qaeda to the Sudan in 1992 until the group was forced to leave, following the execution of the teenaged son of

Ahmad Salama Mabruk Ahmad Salama Mabruk (; 1956 – 3 October 2016), known as Abu Faraj al-Masri (), was a senior leader in the Syrian militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and was previously a leader in Jabhat al-Nusra and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant gro ...

, and Atef moved to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

Chapter VI: Muhammad al-Zawahiri and Hussain al-Zawahiri
/ref> In 1994, he refused to allow American

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

Ali Mohammed to know which name and passport he would be traveling under, expressing concerns that Mohammed could be working with the American authorities. He traveled to

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, Kenya, where he met with

Mohammed Odeh Mohammed Saddiq Odeh (born 1 March 1965) is a Saudi-born al-Qaeda member, sentenced in October 2001 to life imprisonment for his parts in the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998. Odeh was convicted along with three co-c ...

and gave him money to purchase himself a 7-tonne trawler and start a fishing business. While in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, he allegedly conducted a study which resulted in him presenting al-Qaeda details on why

aircraft hijacking Aircraft hijacking (also known as airplane hijacking, skyjacking, plane hijacking, plane jacking, air robbery, air piracy, or aircraft piracy, with the last term used within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States) is the Crime, ...

s were a poor idea as they were engineered to allow the negotiation of hostages in exchange for prisoners, rather than inflicting damage. Another alleged study he carried out determined that the

Afghan Arabs Afghan Arabs (; ; ) were the Arab Muslims who immigrated to Afghanistan and joined the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War. The term does not refer to the history of Arabs in Afghanistan before the 1970s. Despite being referred t ...

and

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

could together topple the dictatorship of

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

in Pakistan, and the government of Iran. In 1995, Atef gave

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (sometimes also spelled Shaykh; also known by at least 50 pseudonyms; born 14 April 1965), often known by his initials KSM, is a terrorist, and the former head of propaganda for the pan-Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. He ...

details for a contact in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

9/11 Commission The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, commonly known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, to investigate all aspects of the September 11 attacks, the deadliest terrorist attack in world history ...

, p. 148 When Mohammed returned to Afghanistan, he turned to Atef to set up a meeting with bin Laden in

Tora Bora Tora Bora (, "Black Cave") is a cave complex, part of the Spin Ghar (White Mountains) mountain range of eastern Afghanistan. It is situated in the Pachir Aw Agam District of Nangarhar, approximately west of the Khyber Pass and north of the ...

, at which he told the pair his plans for military attacks against the United States. Prior to 1996,

Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri (; May 1950 – 21 May 1996) was the ''nom de guerre''Enaam Arnaout Enaam M. Arnaout ( Kunya: ''Abu Mahmoud'';Fitzgerald, Patrick J. United States of America v. Enaam M. Arnaout,Governments Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements, before Hon. Suzanne B. Conlon born 1962) is a ...

in purchasing

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

s and mortar rounds from a Pashtun tribesman named Hajjji Ayoub, and they were subsequently delivered in large trucks to the Jawr and Jihad Wahl training camps.Fitzgerald, Patrick J. United States of America v. Enaam M. Arnaout,
Governments Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements
, before Hon. Suzanne B. Conlon

Named military chief

In 1996, al-Qaeda's military chief

Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri (; May 1950 – 21 May 1996) was the ''nom de guerre''Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

, and Atef was chosen to succeed him. He drew up a plan summarizing the positive qualities of

leaders, and showed his "nuanced understanding" that the United States had energy interests in the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

which would lead them to want an

oil pipeline A pipeline is a system of pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries around the world. The Un ...

built through Afghanistan in the near future. In 1998, a number of militants began to speak openly of their disdain for Atef, leading bin Laden to convene a meeting at which he spoke at length about

Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruli ...

's loyalty to

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. Comparing Atef to the Prophet's lieutenant, he reminded those present that Atef "knew of Jihad before most of you were even born", and warned them that he didn't want to hear any more "negative talk" about Atef.Ressa, Maria. "Seeds of Terror", 2003. Atef was allegedly sent into Somalia at least twice to meet with tribal leaders, once having to escape aboard a small

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufactu ...

aircraft used for transporting

khat Khat (''Catha edulis''), also known as Bushman's tea, especially in South Africa, is a flowering plant native to eastern and southeastern Africa. It has a history of cultivation originating in the Harar area (present day eastern Ethiopia) and ...

.Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon. "The Age of Sacred Terror", 2002 Years later, a

material witness In American criminal law, a material witness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain material witnesses dates to the First Judiciary Act of 1789, but the Bail Reform Act of ...

told American authorities that he flew Atef and four others from an al-Qaeda compound in the

, to

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a reference to the Nairobi Riv ...

to train Somali fighters. This led the United States to accuse him of training the militants who attacked their troops in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu.

1998 embassy bombings

On May 7, 1998, Atef faxed bin Laden a

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

signed by Afghan scholars on May 7, which said that attacks against American civilians could be justified. Three months later,

carried out the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, leading to Atef's indictment as having been involved in the preparation of the attack.Dawoud, Khaled.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Atef al-Masry
November 19, 2001 Following the American reprisal bombings, Atef frisked journalists looking to meet bin Laden. On November 4, an

arrest warrant An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual or the search and seizure of an individual's property. Canada Arrest warrants are issued by a jud ...

was issued in the United States for Atef.USA v. Muhammad Atef, Southern District of New York District Court, November 24, 1998 Atef also began speaking to

Hambali Riduan Isamuddin, also known by the ''nom de guerre'' Hambali (born April 4, 1964), is the former military leader of the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). He is currently in American custody at Guantanamo Bay detainment ...

in Singapore, as the Indonesian-based militant sought al-Qaeda's financing for

Jemaah Islamiyah Jemaah Islamiyah (, ''al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmiyyah'', meaning "Islamic Congregation", frequently abbreviated JI) was a Southeast Asian Islamist militant group based in Indonesia, which was dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in ...

operations.

, p. 151 In turn, when Atef informed Hambali of al-Qaeda's need for a new biological engineer, the latter sent Yazid Sufaat to al-Zawahiri.

Planning of further militant activity

In the 1999

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 ...

, he was tried ''in absentia'' by an Egyptian court which sentenced him to seven years' imprisonment for his associated with the EIJ. That year, he met repeatedly with bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at the Al-Matar complex to discuss possible targets for the

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 ...

attacks. It was accepted that Atef was the one responsible for organizing the hijackers for the attacks. Near the end of the year, he met with

Ramzi bin al-Shibh Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah bin al-Shibh (; born May 1, 1972) is a Yemenis, Yemeni Terrorism, terrorist who served as al-Qaeda's communications officer. He has been detained by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (NSGB) since 200 ...

Mohamed Atta Mohamed Atta (1 September 196811 September 2001) was an Egyptian terrorist hijacker for al-Qaeda. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist, he was the ringleader of the September 11 attacks and served as the Aircraft hijacking, hijacker-pi ...

and

Ziad Jarrah Ziad Samir Jarrah (11 May 197511 September 2001) was a Lebanese man who was one of the four terrorist hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a rural area near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as part of the September 11 atta ...

and explained they would be undertaking a highly secret operation, in cooperation with

Nawaf al-Hazmi Nawaf Muhammad Salim al-Hazmi (; 9 August 1976 – 11 September 2001)''9/11 Commission Report'', 9/11 Commission, p. 166 was a Saudi terrorist hijacker who was one of five Organizers of the September 11 attacks, hijackers of American Airlines Fli ...

whom he named as ''Rabia al-Makki''.

, p. 166 Following the 2000

USS Cole bombing The USS ''Cole'' bombing was a suicide attack by Al-Qaeda against , a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, on 12 October 2000, while it was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor. Seventeen U.S. Navy sailors were killed and thi ...

, Atef was moved to Kandahar, Zawahiri to Kabul, and bin Laden fled to Kabul, later joining Atef when he realised no American reprisal attacks were forthcoming. Whenever al-Qaeda organised games of

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, Atef and bin Laden were forced to be on separate teams since they were both tall and skilled. In January 2001, in

Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...

, Atef's daughter married bin Laden's 17-year-old son Mohammed; the wedding guests included Osama's mother,

al-Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pr ...

journalist Ahmad Zaidan, a "few" Taliban party members, and about 400 others. Osama recited poetry about the USS Cole bombing, but was upset with his delivery and tried having Zaidan re-record the section before deciding he preferred the earlier version. That year,

Mullah Omar Muhammad Umar Mujahid (196023 April 2013), commonly known as Mullah Omar or Muhammad Omar, was an Afghan militant leader and founder and the first leader of the Taliban from 1994 until his death in 2013. During the Third Afghan Civil War, the T ...

is said to have argued that bin Laden should not draw further reprisals against Afghanistan by striking the United States again. This led to a schism among al-Qaeda leadership, where Atef sided with bin Laden, while leaders like Saif al Adel sided with Omar. He is believed to have given José Padilla money to travel back to Egypt from Afghanistan, to visit his wife. The two then formed a working relationship. He also gave

money to travel from

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

to meet with Atta. When

David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan. Hicks traveled to Pakistan after converting to Islam to learn more about the faith, eventually leading to his time in th ...

completed his training at al-Farouq, Atef interviewed him about his achievements and asked about the travel habits of Australians, before agreeing to suggest he be moved to the

Tarnak Farms Tarnak Farms was an Afghan training camp near Kandahar, which served as a base to Osama bin Laden and his followers from 1998 to 2001. It was also the site of the Tarnak Farm incident. In 1998, Osama bin Laden moved his followers from Nazim Ji ...

training camp. Following the

September 11, 2001 attacks 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 ...

, and still a fugitive from his U.S. indictment in the 1998 Embassy bombings, Atef appeared on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush on October 10, 2001. Debka.com has suggested that Atef led an "elite unit" of militants who captured and killed rival warlord

Abdul Haq ʻAbd al-Ḥaqq (ALA-LC romanization of ) is an Arabic male given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words ''Abd (Arabic), ʻabd'' and ''al-Ḥaqq'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to the List of ...

in October 2001. In early November 2001, the

government announced they were bestowing official Afghan

citizenship Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...

on him, as well as bin Laden,

Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until his death in July 2022. He is best known for being ...

Saif al-Adel Mohamed Salah al-Din al-Halim Zaidan (; born 11 April 1960/1963), commonly known by his ''nom de guerre'' Saif al-Adel (), is an Egyptian Islamic militant who is the '' de facto'' leader of al-Qaeda. Previously an Egyptian Army officer, Al-Adel ...

, and Shaykh

Asim Abdulrahman Asim Abdulrahman is an Egyptian Islamist militant. The son of Omar Abdur Rahman, he has been described as "among the closest" of Osama bin Laden's followers in the days following the September 11th attacks in 2001. Under the kunya ''Abu Asim'', ...

. Described as a "devout" and "very quiet man", Atef was one of the few al-Qaeda leaders to not make public video statements. He is alleged to have written a 180-page manual entitled "Military Studies in the Holy Struggle against Tyrants", and directed

s himself.Nasrawi, Salah.

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

, "Key bin Laden aide wrote terror manual", November 17, 2001

Death

Atef was killed, along with his guard Abu Ali al-Yafi'i and six others,

World News Connection World News Connection was a compilation of current international news translated into the English language. The United States Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service compiled and distributed it from non-U.S. media sources, usua ...

Al-Qa'ida member recalls US bombardment, accuses Taliban of betrayal
, October 29, 2003 in a

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

airstrike on his home near Kabul during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan at some time during November 14–16, 2001. American intelligence intercepted communications from those digging through the rubble of Atef's home, leading them to believe they had been successful in killing him. According to the

Combating Terrorism Center The Combating Terrorism Center is an academic institution at the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York that provides education, research and policy analysis in the specialty areas of terrorism, counterterrorism, homeland ...

he was killed in a strike on an "al Qa'ida safehouse". Reports said that American

bomber aircraft A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is d ...

had destroyed the house while

MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the Predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ...

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

s had destroyed vehicles parked outside the house.

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, businessman, and naval officer who served as United States Secretary of Defense, secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and again ...

was initially cautious and indicated only that reports of Atef's death "seem authoritative". His death was confirmed when the ambassador of the

, Abd Al-Salam Dhaif, said three days later, "Abu Hafs al-Masri died from injuries he suffered after US warplanes bombed his house near Kabul." When American forces sifted through the rubble of his house, they found a number of videocassettes, including five that carried

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloqui ...

messages from Abderraouf Jdey,

Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan al-Umda (died 22 April 2012), also known as Gharib al-Taezi, was self-implicated on videotape as a possible terrorist in 2002, and was wanted by the United States Department of Justice's FBI, which was seeking information ...

, and Khalid Ibn Muhammad Al-Juhani. Another videocassette included Hashim Abas casing American institutions in Singapore for possible attack by

in 1999, but was not turned over to Singapore authorities until December 14. It showed a bus station where American military personnel departed for their base, a temple adjoining American military barracks, a park where off-duty soldiers gathered and the Eagle's Club restaurant owned by the American government for its local workers. ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' reporter Alan Cullison purchased two computers that had been looted from the home on the

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

, and noted that while Atef's computer had relatively few files, the other computer appears to have belonged to

and held nearly a thousand files, including some of importance. On November 8, bin Laden delivered a joint eulogy for Atef and Jummah Khan Namangani. Following his death, it was rumored that Saif al-Adl would take over his position as Military Chief of al-Qaeda. Under interrogation, a number of suspected militants including Ibn Shaykh al-Libi later invented fictitious ties from Atef to other uninvolved entities to distract American attention from their true colleagues. Al-Libi told interrogators that Atef had sent an emissary named Abu Abdullah to

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

to obtain

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

and

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or Pathogen, infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and Fungus, fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an ...

training for two al-Qaeda members in December 2000. This led 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 ...

to release a paper tying al-Qaeda to Iraq in January 2003, and justifying the invasion two months later, which arguably relieved some of the pressure on militants in Afghanistan. Parry, Robert. Consortium News
"How Bush's torture helped al-Qaeda"
April 23, 2009 Atef appeared in a video released in September 2006 that showed the planning of the September 11 attacks. Atef has been named as a conspirator in the conspiracy charges against several of the

Guantanamo captive The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by ...

s. In March 2002, Bosnian security forces raided a

Benevolence International Foundation The Benevolence International Foundation (BIF; Benevolence International Fund in Canada), was a purported nonprofit charitable trust based in Saudi Arabia. It was determined to be a front for terrorist group Al-Qaeda and was banned by the United ...

office in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

and seized a computer which contained a number of documents suggesting a degree of complicity with al-Qaeda, including a letter to Atef from

Enaam Arnaout Enaam M. Arnaout ( Kunya: ''Abu Mahmoud'';Fitzgerald, Patrick J. United States of America v. Enaam M. Arnaout,Governments Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements, before Hon. Suzanne B. Conlon born 1962) is a ...

stating that "the organization loaned us a

howitzer The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...

cannon, and it must be returned so that it can be transferred to Kabul".Shay, Shaul. ''Islamic Terror in the Balkans'', 2008. p. 55

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atef, Mohammed 1944 births 1998 United States embassy bombings 2001 deaths Al-Qaeda founders Assassinated al-Qaeda leaders Al-Qaeda leaders Deaths by American drone strikes in Afghanistan Egyptian al-Qaeda members Egyptian expatriates in Pakistan Egyptian Islamic Jihad Egyptian mass murderers Islamist mass murderers FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Individuals designated as terrorists by the United States government People from Monufia Governorate