Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, number 2 in the terrorist organization that was reportedly assassinated in Tehran this summer by Israel and the United States, joined al-Qaeda in the 1980s • After meeting with bin Laden, he planned attacks that killed hundreds • On his house arrest
With the death of Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, number 2 in the al-Qaeda terrorist organization that was reportedly killed in the New York Times this summer in Tehran, Israel and the United States collaborated to bring about his assassination in Iran last summer.
How did the revolutionary Shiite republic help the extremist Sunni jihadist?
Documentation of the assassination of al-Baghdadi, a senior ISIS figure, in 2019
Abdullah, nicknamed Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was born in Egypt in 1963. In the 1980s, he joined the fighting of the jihadist organizations in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, where he met who would become his commander - Osama bin Laden.
The United States assisted in the fighting for those organizations, which were successful due to the use of guerrilla methods against Soviet forces.
Following the United States' extradition request, al-Masri climbed al-Qaeda's leadership ladder and became a member of the Shura Council, in which he acted as a fundraiser and planner for terrorist attacks for the organization.
In the 1990s, al-Masri provided military training to al-Qaeda operatives and tribes in Somalia who fought against US forces in the capital Mogadishu throughout Operation Shabbat Hatikva.
Later, from 1996 to 1998, he ran various training camps of the terrorist organization in Afghanistan.
A federal court in the United States has blamed Abdullah for bombings at U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in the summer of 1998. In both attacks, 224 civilians were killed and more than 5,000 were injured.
After those attacks, Abdullah moved to Iran, where he was protected by the Revolutionary Guards.
However, in 2003 the situation changed, after Islamic Republic authorities ordered the arrest of him and other al-Qaeda leaders.
Shiite Iran's complex relationship with al-Qaeda stems from its ideological priorities.
For it, the West is the main enemy, so it is possible from time to time to cooperate with terrorist organizations from Sunni Islam, such as al-Qaeda and Hamas.
In any case, Abdullah was released in September 2015 from detention in exchange for the release of an Iranian diplomat abducted by an al-Qaeda branch in Yemen.
