Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri
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Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri
Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri (Arabic: أبو عبيدة البنشير; May 1950 – May 23, 1996) was the nom de guerre[1] of Ali Amin al-Rashidi (علي أمين الرشيدي), one of the "most capable and popular leaders"[2] of al-Qaeda.[3][4][5]
When he drowned in a ferry accident on Lake Victoria in 1996, he was the head of al-Qaeda's African presence and second in command of the whole organization, below Osama bin Laden.
History
| “ | It is as if 100 years were added to my life when I came to Afghanistan | ” |
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—Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri[6] |
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Al-Banshiri was born in May 1950 in Cairo, and served as a policeman in Egypt before joining the anti-Soviet effort in Afghanistan,[5] fighting alongside Ahmed Shah Massoud.[7]
His brother had participated in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat. Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, introduced al-Banshiri to Osama Bin Laden, who was so favorably impressed that he made al-Banshiri military commander of the Afghan Arabs. Al-Bashiri's second in command, was Mohammed Atef.[8] He was shot in the leg during the 1987 Battle of Jaji.[9]
While still in Afghanistan, in August 1988, he attended the founding meeting of al-Qaeda, along with bin Laden, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, and others.[10]
While in Kenya and Tanzania he was known by the aliases Adel Habib, Karim, and Jalal.[1] He married a Kenyan woman, and set up a business in Nairobi importing automobiles from the United Arab Emirates.[11]
At some point al-Banshiri acquired either Dutch citizenship[5] or forged Dutch papers.[1] Prior to 1996, al-Bashiri, Mohammed Atef and Yaseen al-Iraqi aided Enaam Arnaout in purchasing AK-47s 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.[12]
Death
When the news broke that the ferry MV Bukoba had sunk in Lake Victoria, al-Qaeda sent Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Wadih el-Hage to the scene, to verify that al-Banshiri was dead, and had not defected or been captured.[13]
Al-Banshiri was succeeded as al-Qaeda's "military" commander by another Egyptian ex-policeman, Mohammed Atef, who had been considered his inseparable friend. Al-Banshiri's senior role in East Africa was taken over, at least in part, by Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah.[1]
A poem entitled "Tears in the Eyes of Time" was written about al-Banshiri, commemorating him among the greatest of the "fallen mujahideen", by Maloy oheb al-Qandahari. al-Zawahiri recited the poem in his January 2006 internet broadcast.[14]
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d Tactical Deception and Strategic Surprise in al-Qai’da’s Operations, Richard H. Shultz and Ruth Margolies Beitler; (other sources agree on his real name)
- ^ 9/11 Commission, "Final Report", p. 65
- ^ Indictment of Enaam Arnaout in 2002, archive at the US Department of Justice; describes the founding of al-Qaeda
- ^ Al-Qaeda gains first members, GlobalSecurity.org
- ^ a b c Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, GlobalSecurity.org
- ^ Mansfield, Laura. "His Own Words", p. 27
- ^ Burke, Jason. "al-Qaeda, the true story of radical Islam", p. 106
- ^ Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, Vintage, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4000-3084-2, p. 147
- ^ Bergen, Peter, "The Osama bin Laden I Know', 2006.
- ^ Global Security database on the founding of al-Qaeda
- ^ Benjamin, Daniel & Steven Simon. "The Age of Sacred Terror", 2002. pp. 130
- ^ 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
- ^ Transcript of testimony in the trial of El Hage and others
- ^ Atwan, Abdel Bari. "The Secret History of al-Qaeda", p. 225
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