Authors: Jason Burke
LINDH, JOHN WALKER
American recruit to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and subsequently to an Arab group formed by al-Qaeda to fight with Taliban. Captured in northern Afghanistan 2001.
MAKHLULIF, AMAR, a.k.a. ABU DOHA
London-based activist, key logistician, implicated in Millennium plot.
AL-MASSARI, MOHAMMED
Saudi dissident based in UK, from where runs Committee for Defence of Legitimate Rights.
MASSOUD, AHMED SHAH
Charismatic Afghan Tajik Islamist and war-lord who fought effectively against the Soviets from his base in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul. Defence minister in mid nineties. Was the only Afghan commander to successfully resist the Taliban. Killed on 9 September 2001 by a suicide bomber linked to bin Laden, aged 49.
MAUDUDI, SYED ABDUL A’LA
South Asian journalist and autodidact whose formulation of non-violent political Islamism and rejection of the authority of the establishment clergy has been enormously influential. Founder of Pakistani Jamaat Islami party.
AL-MAYMOUNI, MUSTAPHA
Moroccan instigator of cell responsible for Madrid bombings of March 2004.
AL-MIDHAR, KHALID
Experienced Saudi militant believed to have fought in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Arrived in America in 1999 with al-Hazmi. Also known to the CIA. Died on AA77 in September 2001 attacks.
MOHAMMED, ALI
Former US special forces supply sergeant, joined Egyptian Islamic Jihad and through them met and worked for bin Laden and other groups, mainly as a trainer, in early 1990s. muhamed, khalfan khamis Tanzanian-born militant tried and convicted in New York in 2001 for his (relatively minor) role in the 1998 Nairobi bombing.
MURSI, MIDHAT, a.k.a. ABU HABAB
Al-Qaeda’s alleged chemical-weapons specialist, based at Darunta camp, near Jalalabad, between 1998 and 2001.
NAJIBULLAH, MOHAMMED
Afghan president. A former Afghan Communist cadre who ruled in Kabul from 1986 until 1992. Killed by Taliban when captured in the Afghan capital in September 1996.
NAMANGANI, JUMA
Leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Probably killed in Kunduz, Afghanistan, 2001.
AL-NASHIRI, ABD AL-RAHIM
Saudi-born Yemeni, bin Laden’s Gulf chief of operations, probable mastermind of USS
Cole
attack. Currently in US custody.
NOUAR, NIZAR
24-year-old drifter who killed himself in suicide attack on synagogue in Djerba in 2001.
ODEH, MOHAMMED
Saudi-born Palestinian, combat medic with mujahideen in Afghanistan, sent to Somalia in 1992, later played role in 1998 Nairobi bombs, for which he was convicted in 2001 in New York.
OMAR, MULLAH MOHAMMED
One-eyed reclusive cleric and former anti-Soviet fighter who formed the Taliban in 1994 when priest in village of Sangesar, southwest of Kandahar. Became close to bin Laden around 1998. Currently fugitive.
AL-OWHALI, MOHAMMED RASHID DAOUD
Saudi militant who trained in Afghan camps and fought with Taliban 1996–8. Was convicted in 2001 for role in 1998 Nairobi attack. Currently in prison in America.
QUTB, SYED
Egyptian school inspector and radical thinker, hanged in 1966 in Egypt. A member of the Muslim Brotherhood and the key ideologue for modern Sunni militants. His book
Milestones
, written while awaiting execution in 1966, is a classic text of modern Islamic radicalism.
RABBANI, BURHANUDDIN
Tajik professor of Shariat at Kabul University who translated Qutb’s work into Dari and organized Afghan’s Islamist groups in the early 1970s. Later led an Islamist mujahideen faction against the Soviets and played key role in factional fighting that followed in early 1990s. President of Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996. Still a major figure in Afghan politics.
RABBANI, MULLAH MOHAMMED
Taliban mayor of Kabul and leader of moderate faction within the movement. Died of cancer in 2001.
RAHMAN, ABDEL OMAR
Blind Egyptian preacher and leader of al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, in prison in high-security jail in USA. Was the pre-eminent leader of Islamic militancy in the early 1990s before his capture and incarceration.
RESSAM, AHMED
Algerian activist, born 1967. Made his way from Canada to Afghanistan to receive training. Arrested in December 1999 on his way to blow up Los Angeles airport.
SALANI, ABDURAJAK
Founder of Philippines Abu Sayyaf group, religious education in Saudi Arabia, fought Soviets in Afghanistan, killed in 1998.
AL-SAUD, ABDUL AZIZ
tribal leader in the Arabian peninsula who founded state of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
SAYYAF, ABD AL-RAB AL-RASUL
Afghan warlord and Islamic scholar with strong Saudi connections. Heavily influenced by Wahhabis. Sponsored scores of terror camps in early 1990s. Opposed the Taliban. Currently living in Paghman province, Afghanistan, and still politically active.
SHAH, ZAHIR
Afghan king, reigned from 1933 to 1973. Returned to Afghanistan from exile in Italy in 2002.
SHAIKH MOHAMMED, KHALID
Born 1964 or 1965 in Kuwait of Pakistani parents, experienced Islamic activist with good contacts in Gulf, joined forces with bin Laden in 1996 after fleeing Qatar. Key planner of 11 September and dozens of other attacks. Captured in Pakistan in 2003.
AL-SHAMI, ABU ABDULLAH
Jordanian sent by bin Laden as emissary to Kurdish radical groups in 2001. Probably killed in subsequent fighting in Iraq in 2004 or 2005.
AL-SHEHHI, MARWAN
Pilot of hijacked plane in 11 September attack. Born in 1978 in Ras al-Khaimah, northern emirate of UAE, the son of an imam. Arrived in Bonn in early 1997 and met Atta at Hamburg University. Flew UA175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
SHEIKH, OMAR SAEED
British-raised Pakistani militant, joined Harkat ul Mujahideen after being radicalized by propaganda about Bosnia. Imprisoned in India for kidnapping of tourists then released when militants hijacked an Indian Airlines plane in 1999. Convicted by a Pakistani court of killing Daniel Pearl, an American journalist murdered in Karachi in 2000.
AL-SHIBH, RAMZI BIN
Key co-ordinator of the ‘Hamburg cell’. Born 1972 in Hadramawt, Yemen. A computer graduate. Arrived in Germany about 1995 and moved to Hamburg. Moved into apartment at 54 Marienstrasse on 31 October 1998 with Atta and another man. Tried and failed to enter USA. Arrested in Karachi, September 2002.
SUFAAT, YAZID
University-educated Malaysian pharmaceutical salesman linked to Jemaa Islamiyya network who hosted crucial meeting of several 11 September plotters in early 2000 in Kuala Lumpur.
THALIB, JAFAR UMAR
Leader of Indonesian group known as Lashkar Jihad, met but did not like bin Laden in 1987 and subsequently rejected his offers of assistance.
AL-TUBAITI, ZUHAIR HILAL MOHAMMED
Saudi volunteer who made his way to Afghanistan in 2000 to ask for ‘martyrdom job’ but was told to go and formulate his own plan first ‘like everyone else’. Arrested in Morocco in 2002.
AL-TURABI, HASSAN
Polyglot, polymathic Sudanese Islamist leader. Took power in 1989. Lost influence in late 1990s, spending periods under house arrest.
AL-UTAIBA, JUHAIMAN IBN SAID
Radical preacher who seized the grand mosque in Mecca rebellion against Saudi Arabian government in 1979.
AL-WADA’IL, SHEIKH MOQBUL
Radical Yemeni scholar running large
medressa, allegedly visited by John Walker Lindh. Also source of fatwas for militants.
YOUSEF, RAMZI
Pakistan-born terrorist responsible for string of attacks in early nineties in Pakistan, mainland USA and southeast Asia. Caught in Islamabad in 1995 and subsequently convicted of 1993 attack on World Trade Center in New York. Currently imprisoned.
AL-ZARQAWI, ABU MUSAB
Jordanian-born militant, veteran of war in Afghanistan against the Soviets. Imprisoned in Jordan between 1992 and 1997 when released under a general amnesty. Then based in Afghanistan during late 1990s, where rival to, not ally of, bin Laden. Chief of al-Tauhid group based in western Europe. Involved in murder of American diplomat in Jordan in 2002 and supply of volunteers to Iraq through 2003–4 and coordination of increasingly spectacular terror attacks there including many on Shia muslims and westerners. Killed in June 2006 by a US airstrike.
AL-ZAWAHIRI, AYMAN
Trained paediatrician and Islamic activist, born in Cairo in 1951. Leader of Islamic Jihad. After imprisonment and torture, fled Egyptian government crackdowns to Pakistan, arriving in 1985. Constant companion and partner of bin Laden since 1996 following development of relationship in Sudan in early nineties. A key ideological influence on bin Laden. Currently fugitive.
ZUBAYDAH, ABU OR ZEIN AL-ABIDEEN MOHAMMED HASSAN
. Palestinian-born activist. Senior aide of bin Laden responsible for flow of volunteers through camps in Afghanistan. Captured in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March 2002.
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