After Ayman al-Zawahiri killing, who will take over leadership of Al Qaeda

Adel is reportedly present in Iran, as per a South China Morning Post report. While the Shia Islamic Republic of Iran officially opposes the Sunni-led Al Qaeda, many analysts and US officials maintain that Tehran has been cooperating with the terror group and giving sanctuary to its leaders.

Also Read: US warns of possible terrorist retaliation after Ayman al-Zawahiri’s killing

On the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most-wanted list, Adel has a bounty of up to $10 million on his head, and the US agency considers him a mastermind of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Kenya's Nairobi.

Adel is also considered to have played a key role in the October 1993 Mogadishu "Black Hawk Down" incident that resulted in the ambush and death of at least 18 US soldiers in the Somalian capital.

Also Read: Rise and fall of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri

Another contender is Abu Abd al-Karim al-Masri, who is part of the leadership of the Syrian jihadist group Hurras al-Din and is believed to be in Syria, as per reports. The terror operative has a reward of up to $5 million for information by the US Department of State's Rewards for Justice.

Hurras al-Din emerged in Syria in early 2018 after several factions broke away from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front) following al-Nusra’s decision to sever ties with al-Qaida, said a Voice of America report.

From being a centralised close-knit group under bin Laden, Al Qaeda under Zawahiri became a decentralised or franchised sort of model across, but largely with strongholds in the West Asian region, Northern Africa and some offshoots elsewhere.

Some of these were the al-Shabab, who still control a large chunk of rural Somalia, the JNIM active in West Africa — particularly Mali, Syrian groups and the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) branch.

Also Read: Explained: Who was al-Zawahri — and why did US kill him?