Erbil, Kurdistan Region - The new de facto leader of al-Qaeda Saif al-Adel is based in Iran, the US state department said on Wednesday, confirming a recent report by the United Nations on extremist groups.
US state department spokesperson, Ned Price, told reporters that Washington's "assessment aligns with that of the UN" and that Adel is located in Iran, adding that this is "another example of Iran's wide-ranging support for terrorism, its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and beyond".
The confirmation from Washington comes after a detailed assessment of terrorist threats from al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS) published on Monday by the UN Security Council monitoring team. The report provided the most recent developments on locations, leadership and organizational structure.
Adel, 62, who has been in al-Qaeda for decades and is wanted by the FBI. He has assumed the role since the killing of former leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a US drone strike in Afghanistan last summer.
The report added that Adel's "leadership cannot be declared because of al-Qaida's [al-Qaeda] sensitivity to Afghan Taliban concerns not to acknowledge the death of... Zawahiri in Kabul." Following the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban's political focus has been on strengthening relationships with the outside world - an agenda that would most certainly be jeopardized by acknowledging that al-Zawahiri was present in Kabul during their leadership.
The report said that al-Adel has lived in Iran since around the killing of Osama Bin laden in 2011 in Pakistan, but there is little information about his activities inside the country. In August 2020, Israeli agents are believed to have killed a senior member of al-Qaeda in Tehran but Iran denied at the time of the existence of the group members in the country.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Thursday called on the US in a tweet to "stop the failed Iranophobia game."
"Linking Al-Qaeda to Iran is patently absurd and baseless. Those who created Al-Qaeda and DAESH must be held to account for spreading terrorism worldwide. Don't give false address!" he said.
Al-Qeda is a radical transnational militant terrorist group, which was established by Osama bin Laden. It has traditionally had its headquarters in Afghanistan. The group also had a stronghold in Iraq between 2004 and 2013.
The report also outlines the existing operational capabilities of ISIS across the world including in Iraq and Syria. While there has been a decline in strength and coordination among its groups - mainly due to substantial leadership losses - the jihadist group remains resilient, with an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 members, roughly half are fighters.
By Martha Gillberg
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