Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti (born Khalid Bin Abdul Rehman Al-Hussainan ( ar, خالد بن عبد الرحمن الحسينان); – December 6, 2012
) was a high-ranking member of
Al-Qaeda, and was considered a potential successor to
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of the
Salafist
The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...
jihad group. Abu-Zaid was killed in a
drone strike
Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakist ...
in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
.
Biography
Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti was born in
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
in either 1965 or 1966. At one point, he was an
imam in the
Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs
Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs is a cabinet department of the Cabinet of Kuwait, executive branch of the government of Kuwait dedicated to spreading tolerant Islamic culture. Specifically, it seeks to spread awareness and expand the i ...
.
He became affiliated with the
Al-Qaeda jihadist group and a member of their
Islamic study committee,
eventually joining the top tier of leaders. Since the death of
Abu Yahya al Libi earlier in 2012, Abu-Zaid was regarded as Al Qaeda's top religious scholar, appearing in many videos teaching Islam.
Abu Zaid was considered a potential heir to the organization,
and accordingly became a high-value target for the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
i government. He was killed in a drone attack
while eating breakfast (
Suhur)
near
Mir Ali in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
,
and the Al-Qaeda organization acknowledged his death three months later.
He was 46 years old when he was killed.
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
journalist and
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
consultant
Evan Kohlmann commented on his death in an interview with NBC. “That's a big gap in the leadership. He was the last senior Al-Qaida leader in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area who was, one, from the Arabian Peninsula and, two, who had serious clerical credentials. Now there is no obvious publicly recognizable candidate left to succeed Zawahiri.”
Abu Zaid has been honored as
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
by al Qaeda,
Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, and
Seifallah Ben Hassine.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuwaiti, Abu-Zaid
1960s births
2012 deaths
Kuwaiti al-Qaeda members
Assassinated al-Qaeda leaders
20th-century criminals
21st-century criminals
Deaths by United States drone strikes in Pakistan
Kuwaiti expatriates in Pakistan