1. Ayman al-Zawahiri is the leader of
al Qaeda. A reward up to $25 million has been offered by the U.S.
government. Click through to see the men allegedly plotting, directing
and, in some cases, carrying out acts of terror around the world.
Despite the whittling away by drone attacks of "al Qaeda central" in the
mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the group's
leader remains vocal and active in trying to harness the disparate
affiliates that claim the al Qaeda name.
Since former leader Osama bin Laden's death
in 2011, al-Zawahiri has sought to take advantage of the unrest
sweeping the Arab world, and has recognized that groups such as al Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are
better placed to carry out attacks than the ever-diminishing core that
remains in "Af-Pak." At times, al-Zawahiri has struggled to exercise
authority over groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq, not least
because of the difficulty in communicating with far-flung offshoots
.
Aware that pulling off
another 9/11 is a remote possibility, al-Zawahiri has suggested a shift
to less ambitious and less expensive but highly disruptive attacks on "soft" targets,
as well as hostage-taking. In an audio message in August he recommended
taking "the citizens of the countries that are participating in the
invasion of Muslim countries as hostages."
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian
doctor who is now 62, is not the inspirational figure to jihadists that
bin Laden was, but he is trying to fashion a role as the CEO of a
sprawling enterprise. According to the Economist,
he may be succeeding. "From Somalia to Syria, al-Qaeda franchises and
jihadist fellow travellers now control more territory, and can call on
more fighters, than at any time since Osama bin Laden created the
organisation 25 years ago," it wrote this month.
Reward offered by the U.S. government for his capture: up to $25 million
2. Nasir al Wuhayshi is leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP. For someone thought to be about 36 years old, Wuhayshi's
terror resume is already extensive. Once bin Laden's private secretary
in Afghanistan, he returned to his native Yemen and ended up in jail.
But not for long: He and several other al Qaeda operatives dug their way
out in 2006. He went on to to help found al Qaeda in Yemen, and began
launching attacks on Yemeni security services and foreign tourists, as
well as directing an ambitious attack against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
He is now the emir of
AQAP, widely regarded as the most dangerous and active of al Qaeda's
many offshoots. A slight figure with an impish sense of humor, according
to some who have met him, Wuhayshi appears to have
been anointed al Qaeda's overall deputy leader in a bold move by
al-Zawahiri to leverage the capabilities of AQAP. Seth Jones, a Rand
Corporation analyst, called the appointment "unprecedented because he's
living in Yemen, he's not living in Pakistan."
If al-Zawahiri is al Qaeda's CEO, Wuhayshi appears to be its COO -- with responsibilities that extend far beyond Yemen. It appears that in 2012 he was already giving operational advice to al Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa.
Despite a concerted
effort by the Yemeni government and the United States to behead AQAP,
Wuhayshi survives, and his fighters have recently gone on the offensive
again in southern Yemen. The group is bent on exporting terror to the
West -- both through bomb plots and by dispatching Western converts home
to sow carnage.
3. Ibrahim al Asiri is thought to be the chief bomb-maker for AQAP.
Not a household name, but one that provokes plenty of anxiety among
Western intelligence agencies. Al-Asiri, a 31-year-old Saudi, is AQAP's
master bomb-maker, as expert as he is ruthless. He is widely thought to
have designed the "underwear" bomb that nearly brought down a U.S.
airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, as well as the ingenious printer bombs
sent as freight from Sanaa, Yemen, and destined for the United States
before being intercepted thanks to a Saudi tip-off. The bombs were so
well hidden that at first British police were unable to find one device
even after isolating the printer.
Al-Asiri also fitted his
younger brother Abduillah with a bomb hidden in his rectum in an effort
to kill Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism chief, Mohammed bin Nayef. The
brother died in the attack; bin Nayef survived.
His trademark explosive is PETN -- a white, odorless powder than cannot be detected by most X-ray machines.
Al-Asiri is thought to
be somewhere in the vast mountainous interior of southern Yemen. The
anxiety among Saudi and Western intelligence officials is that he has
passed on his expertise to apprentices.
4. Ahmed Abdi Godane,
also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, is the leader of Al-Shabaab. A reward
up to $7 million has been offered by the U.S. government.
Godane, aka Mukhtar Abu
Zubayr, became the leader of the Somali group Al-Shabaab at the end of
2008. Traditionally, Al-Shabaab has been focused on bringing Islamic
rule to Somalia, and as such has attracted dozens of ethnic Somalis (and
a few Western coverts) from the United States and Europe. But Godane
appears to be refocusing the group on terrorist attacks beyond Somalia,
against the east African states that are supporting the Somali
government -- especially Uganda and Kenya -- and against Western
interests in east Africa.
The Westgate Mall attack
in Nairobi September 21 was Al-Shabaab's most audacious, but not its
first nor most deadly outside Somalia. In 2010, Al-Shabaab carried out
suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in which more than 70
people were killed. But the Westgate siege, which left 67 people dead,
demonstrated Godane's desire to align his group more closely with al
Qaeda. In a taped message afterward, he noted the attack took place
"just 10 days after the anniversary date of the blessed 9/11
operations."
Under Godane, Al-Shabaab has become a formal ally of al Qaeda. That has
led to dissent, which Godane has dealt with ruthlessly, using his
control of Al-Shabaab's intelligence wing. The American jihadist Omar
Hammami was killed in September after criticizing Godane's leadership
and his treatment of foreign fighters.
Godane is said to be 36
years old, and is originally from Somaliland in northern Somalia. He is
slim to the point of wispy, as seen in the very few photographs of him,
and prefers recording audio messages to appearing in public.
After the Westgate
attack, Kenyan and Western intelligence agencies will undoubtedly step
up efforts to end his reign of terror. But he should not be
underestimated. A former Somali prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali
Sharmarke, once described Godane as the cleverest of Al-Shabaab's
leaders.
The U.S. government's
Rewards for Justice program lists him under another alias, Ahmed Abdi
Aw-Mohamed, and is offering up to $7 million for information leading to
his location.
5. Moktar Belmoktar is
the leading figure of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. A reward up to
$5 million has been offered by the U.S. government.
Belmoktar is Algerian but based in the endless expanse of desert known
as the Sahel. Like many on this list, he has an uncanny knack for
survival against the odds. A year ago, he probably would not have been
counted among the world's most dangerous terrorists. Then he announced
the formation of an elite unit called "Those Who Sign With Blood," which
he said would be the shield against the "invading enemy." A short time
later, his fighters launched an attack on the In Amenas gas plant in
southern Algeria. A three-day siege left nearly 40 foreign workers dead.
Since then, Belmoktar's
fighters have launched attacks on a military academy and French uranium
mine in Niger in May, despite losing much of their freedom of movement
after the French intervention in Mali in January.
Belmoktar is unusual in combining jihadist credentials with a lucrative business in smuggling and kidnapping. He is often called "Mr. Marlboro"
because of his illicit cigarette trafficking, and is thought to have
amassed millions of dollars through ransoms for westerners kidnapped in
Mali.
Intelligence officials
have told CNN that he has also developed contacts with jihadist groups
in Libya as instability has gripped the country in the wake of Moammar
Gadhafi's overthrow.
Born in 1972, Belmoktar
grew up in poverty in southern Algeria. He traveled to Afghanistan in
1991 in his late teens to fight its then-Communist government, and
returned to Algeria as a hardened fighter with a new nickname "Belaouar"
-- the "one-eyed" -- after a battlefield injury. He later joined forces
with the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in its brutal campaign against the
Algerian regime.
Reward offered by the U.S. government: up to $5 million for information leading to his location.
6. Abu Muhammad al Julani is the leader of al-Nusra Front in Syria. Very little is known about Julani beyond his leadership status.
While Belmoktar might
have been on the fringes of a "most dangerous terrorist list" a year
ago, Abu Muhammad al-Julani would not have been anywhere near it. But as
Syria has descended into a state of civil war, al-Julani's group -- the
al-Nusra Front -- has emerged as one of the most effective rebel factions.
Formed in January 2012, it is a jihadist group with perhaps 10,000
fighters, many of them battle-hardened in Iraq. It has specialized in
suicide bombings and IED attacks against regime forces, and its success
has attracted hundreds of fighters from other rebel groups.
Al-Julani personally
pledged his group's allegiance to al-Zawahiri in April, and the U.S.
State Department has branded al-Nusra as part of the al Qaeda-affiliated
Islamic State in Iraq. In May, the United States added al Julani to to
the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
Al-Nusra has so far not
shown any inclination to take the fight to Western targets. Andrew
Parker, the head of the British intelligence agency MI5, thinks that
will change.
"A growing proportion of
our casework now has some link to Syria... Al-Nusra and other extremist
Sunni groups there aligned with al Qaeda aspire to attack Western
countries," he said in a speech in London this week.
Of al-Julani himself,
very little is known. Al-Nusra places a premium on organizational
security. Even his nationality is unclear, but he is thought to have had
experience as an insurgent in Iraq. A recent study by the Quilliam Foundation in London concluded his leadership of the group was "uncontested."
"Sources tell us that
his face is always covered in meetings, even with other leaders.
Al-Julani is thought to be a Syrian jihadist with suspected close ties
to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda in Iraq," the study's authors said.
Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. missile strike in 2006.
7. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of Islamic State in Iraq. A reward up to $10 million has been offered by the U.S. government.
One factor that may
influence the growth and potency of al-Nusra is its relationship with
fellow jihadists in Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was publicly at
odds with al Julani over the regional pecking order earlier this year,
asserting that al-Nusra was part of his group, a claim swiftly rejected
by al Julani. Western intelligence would like nothing more than dissent
between these two groups. Close cooperation between them across the long
Syrian-Iraqi border -- the goal of al-Zawahiri -- is the nightmare
scenario.
On the battlefield in Syria, cooperation between the two groups appears to be continuing, especially in towns like Deir Izzor in eastern Syria.
Inside Iraq, al-Baghdadi has
overseen a dramatic spike in terror attacks against the Shia-dominated
state and security apparatus, aided by jail breaks and bank robberies.
It has also claimed devastating bomb attacks against Shia civilians and
is open about carrying out attacks on purely sectarian grounds. It
claimed credit for a wave of car bombings in Baghdad on September 30, in
which more than 50 people were killed, calling it a "new page in the
series of destructive blows" against Shiite areas in Iraq.
The monthly number of civilian deaths in Iraq, according to the United Nations, is now at its highest since 2008.
Al-Baghdadi benefits
from fertile ground in that Iraq's Sunni minority is increasingly
fearful of the Shia-dominated government led by Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki. Sunni tribes straddle the Syrian-Iraqi border, adding to a
combustible regional picture.
Born in Samarra,
al-Baghdadi is in his early 40s. In a eulogy for bin Laden, he
threatened violent retribution for his killing. Analysts regard ISIS as a
greater threat now than at any time since the U.S. "surge" and the
emergence of the Sunni Awakening Councils six years ago, which then
turned the tide against al Qaeda in Iraq.
Reward offered by U.S. government, which lists him as Abu Du'a: up to $10 million for information leading to his location.
8. Sirajudin Haqqani
is the leader of the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan. A reward up to $5
million has been offered by the U.S. government.
Shifting from the Middle
East to the Afghan-Pakistan border regions, several groups are
positioning themselves for the exit of U.S. combat forces from
Afghanistan next year. Among the most dangerous is the Haqqani Network,
responsible for some of the deadly attacks in Kabul in recent years. A
2008 coordinated suicide bomb attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul left
six dead. Another strike in June 2011 killed 12 at the InterContinental
Hotel.
U.S. officials say that
in addition to its high-profile suicide attacks against hotels and other
civilian targets in the Afghan capital, it is responsible for killing
and wounding more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Known as Siraj, Haqqani is the son of the group's founder, and is in his early 40s.
"Siraj is a brutal
criminal murderer," Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the outgoing commander of
the U.S. 101st Airborne Division in eastern Afghanistan, told the publication Jane's in 2009.
Jeffrey Dressler, a
senior analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, told CNN last
year that Haqqani is "very, very competent, a very capable leader who
has really grown the network over the past five, six years."
U.S. officials say the Haqqani Network
is all the more dangerous in that its presence in the tribal
territories of Pakistan is tolerated by the Pakistani government. The
family belongs to the Zadran tribe, which spans the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border and stretches to Khost province. The Haqqanis have a close
relationship with both al Qaeda and the Taliban, but are also thought to
have begun recruiting Chechen and Turkish jihadists.
The Obama administration
designated the Haqqani Network a terror group last year. It is regarded
as well-funded because of a series of legitimate and illicit businesses
that stretch to the Gulf.
Reward offered by U.S. government for information leading to Haqqani's location: up to $5 million
9. Abubakar Shekau is the leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria. A reward up to $7 million has been offered by the U.S. government.
Shekau's inclusion recognizes the growing tide of Islamist militancy in
West Africa. For the last four years, he has led Boko Haram, a Salafist
group in northern Nigeria that has begun cooperating with other groups
as far away as Mali.
But its main focus
remains churches and other Christian targets, the police and the
moderate Muslim establishment in northern Nigeria. Just last month,
suspected Boko Haram fighters broke into a college in Yobe state and murdered more than 40 students as they slept.
In 2010, Shekau warned
that the group would attack Western interests and the following year it
carried out its first suicide bombing -- against U.N. offices in the
capital, Abuja -- killing at least 23 people. The group has also
kidnapped and killed several Western hostages. While Bokko Haram is not
an affiliate of al Qaeda, Shekau has made clear his sympathy for the
group's goals. The United States made him a Specially Designated Global
Terrorist in June 2012.
Two caveats here: there
are conflicting reports that Shekau was killed in an August raid by
Nigerian special forces. But a video that appeared weeks later purported
to show he was still alive. And Boko Haram's leadership structure is
opaque at best; it's unclear how much control Shekau himself exerts over
its fighters.
John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, wrote last month
that so far "Boko Haram has shown little interest in the world outside
of Nigeria and the Sahel. But the situation in Nigeria is dynamic, and
it is possible that closer ties will develop between al-Qaeda and
elements of Boko Haram."
"Boko Haram" means
"Western education is forbidden" and reflects the group's utter
rejection of modernity and Western influences.
"Hostile to democracy,
modern science, and Western education as non-Islamic, it is highly
diffuse," Campbell said of the group. "For some adherents, religious,
even apocalyptic, themes appear to be paramount."
Reward offered by the U.S. government: up to $7 million for his location.
10. Doku Umarov is the
leader of the Caucasus Emirate, a Chechen group dedicated to bringing
Islamic rule to much of southern Russia. A reward up to $5 million has
been offered by the U.S. government.
Doku Umarov leads the Caucasus Emirate (CE), a Chechen group dedicated to bringing Islamic rule to much of southern Russia.
The U.S. State
Department named Umarov a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2010,
and said subsequently he was "encouraging followers to commit violent
acts against CE's declared enemies, which include the United States as
well as Israel, Russia, and the United Kingdom."
U.S. officials have been
investigating whether the Tsarnaev brothers -- who were blamed for
carrying out the bombing at the Boston Marathon in April -- had any
links with Chechen militant groups. But nothing has surfaced connecting
them with CE. And the group's main focus has been on attacking Russian
institutions and civilian targets. In January 2011, it bombed Moscow's
Domodedovo airport, killing 36 people, and suicide bombings of Moscow
subway stations in 2010 killed 40 people.
Umarov was
born in southern Chechnya in 1964, according to Chechen websites, and
describes his family as part of the "intelligentsia." He came of age as
the separatist campaign against Russian rule began to take root and
joined the insurgency when then-Russian leader Boris Yeltsin sent troops
into the region in 1994.
In a proclamation
published on a Chechen jihadist website in 2007, he declared, "It was my
destiny to lead the Jihad... I will lead and organize Jihad according
to the understanding, given to me by Allah."
Reward offered by the U.S. government for information on his location: up to $5 million.
Any compilation of the world's most dangerous terrorists is a hazardous
undertaking, a shifting list that's open to endless debate.
If you live in Moscow,
Chechen Islamist leader Doku Umarov would feature prominently. Many
Israelis would likely include Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on their
list and people living in the southern Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf
group.
Some terror figures who
were among the most wanted several years ago, such as Abu Anas al Libi
-- who was captured last weekend in Libya -- appear not to have been
active for some time. Even some terrorists try to retire. The last list
compiled by CNN included senior al Qaeda operative Saif al Adel. He has
vanished from the radar and may have been under house arrest in Iran.
Other figures lose relevance as their group loses territory, membership
and/or funding. Groups such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have been
prone to internal rifts. Additionally, al Qaeda, especially in
Pakistan, has moved away from identifying senior operational figures
because of the effects of U.S. drone strikes, so some of a new
generation of most dangerous terrorist figures may not yet be known to
us.
The above selection
is intended neither as definitive nor a "league table." It focuses not
on organizations but on men (and they are all men) alleged to be
plotting, directing -- and in some instances carrying out -- acts of
terror aimed at causing mass casualties among civilians.
Some are ideologues and
planners, others "operational," and some are both. They think and act in
a regional and in some cases a global context.
Others are only now
making a name for themselves among the world's counterterrorism
agencies, as they take advantage of conflict or the collapse of state
authority, forge new alliances or develop new ways of bringing terror to
the international stage.
