Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim ( ar, محمد حسن خليل الحكيم) alias Abu Jihad al-Masri ( ar, أبو جهاد المصري) (died October 31, 2008) was purported by US authorities to operate in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

as the head of media and propaganda for

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

, and "may also

ave been ''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...

the Chief of External Operations for al Qaeda".Rewards For Justice wanted poster of al-Hakim
US Department of State The name ''Abu Jihad'' is an informal or assumed name meaning roughly " father of the struggle", and ''al-Masri'' simply means ''the Egyptian''. He was killed in a US airstrike in Pakistan on October 31, 2008. Al-Hakim was the person who appeared in an August 2006

as-Sahab As-Sahab Media (Arabic: السحاب, "The Cloud") is the official media wing of Al-Qaeda’s core leadership based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It produces media featuring original sermons and speeches by senior Al-Qaeda commanders as well as f ...

(al-Qaeda) video to announce the merger of al-Qaeda with part of the Egyptian caliphist group al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. He is identified in that video as Muhammad Khalil Hasan al-Hukaymah ( ar, محمد خليل حسن الحكايمة) and more briefly as Muhammad Khalil al-Hukaymah ( ar, محمد خليل الحكايمة) and as Abu Jihad al-Masri. In that video al-Hukaymah is introduced by

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with a ...

, who is also Egyptian and who was the leader of the rival group al-Jihad al-Islami. The video claims that al-Hukaymah joined al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in 1979 and was arrested in connection with the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat in 1981, and subsequently rearrested several times in various countries. Zawahiri claims in that video that Muhammad al-Islambouli (brother of assassin Khalid al-Islambouli) had joined al-Qaeda with al-Hukaymah. Other al-Qaeda propaganda''Tawhed'' website, in Arabic; access is blocked in some jurisdictionsCopy of Tawhed's claims
about al-Hukaymah, at the website of Hani al-Sibai claims that al-Hukaymah worked with Refai Ahmed Taha (former Gama'a leader and affiliate of al-Zawahiri), but that is uncorroborated. Al-Hakim authored several books and short pamphlets on the topic of jihad. ''Myth of Delusion'', an analysis of the American intelligence community, was released in August 2006. In September of the same year, a short piece entitled ''Towards A New Strategy in Resisting the Occupier'' was posted to the defunct jihadist website www.althabeton.co.nr. This essay, while supporting continued large scale operations against Americans in Iraq and Israelis in Palestine, also encourages "individual jihads" involving only small groups or individuals using constant low-level violence to disrupt "occupying forces." Al-Hakim also stresses the need to consider public opinion in planning operations, discouraging beheadings or operations that can cause large scale casualties to innocent Muslims.Muhammad Khalil al-Hakaymah, ''Towards a New Strategy In Resisting the Occupier'', 11 Sept 2006. Al-Hakim is also claimed by Al Arabiya Institute for Studies to be Abu Bakr Naji, the author of the 2004

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

'' Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Ummah Will Pass''. The book was aimed to provide a strategy that

and other jihadists could follow to create a new Islamic

caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

. On 1 November 2008 AFP quoted an unnamed senior Pakistani intelligence source saying that al-Hakim was killed in the previous day's drone strike on a car in North Waziristan.Al-Qaeda propaganda chief killed in Pakistan strike: officials
, AFP

See also

References

Further reading