Al Qaeda’s new murderer-in-chief

Al Qaeda has an acting leader: Saif al-Adel.

Al Qaeda’s interim leader is Saif al-Adel, who has long played a prominent role in the group, according to Noman Benotman. Benotman has known the al Qaeda leadership for more than two decades. He was once a leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a militant organization that used to be aligned with al Qaeda, but in recent years renounced al Qaeda’s ideology.

Benotman told CNN that based on his personal communications with militants and discussions on jihadist forums, al-Adel, also known as Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi, had been chosen interim chief of al Qaeda because the global jihadist community had grown restive in recent days about the lack of a formal announcement of a successor to bin Laden.

Experts still expect Al-Zawahiri will become the new official leader.

In a way, this really isn’t bad news. We knew Bin Laden would be replaced by someone else. This news only means that the West has a new target to hit; first Bin Laden had to be taken out, now it’s time to take out his successor(s): Al-Adel and al-Zawahiri.