Ibrahim Muhammad Salih al-Banna

Ibrahim Muhammad Salih al-Banna (Arabic: ابراهيم محمد صالح البنا‎; born 1965) is a citizen of Egypt who security officials suspect is a leader in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).[1][2] Security officials have repeatedly claimed to have killed him with missiles launched from unmanned aerial vehicles. An October 2011 claim had al-Banna killed, along with six other individuals, including some who were alleged to have been associated with AQAP and at least one (Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son and American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki) who was not.[3][4] Ibrahim al-Banna was added to the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice wanted list on October 14, 2014.[5][6]

Ibrahim al-Banna
Born1965 (age 54–55)
NationalityEgypt
Other names
  • Abu Ayman al-Masri
  • Ibrahim Muhammad Salih al-Banna
Occupationjihadist
Known forsuspected of being an al Qaeda intelligence chief

According to the Jamestown Foundation, Yemeni security officials apprehended al-Banna in August 2010 and a Yemeni newspaper published transcripts of his interrogation in November 2010.[2] The Jamestown Foundation published a profile of al-Banna based on those transcripts. The profile claimed that his full name was "Shaykh Ibrahim Muhammad Salih al-Banna" and his kunya was Abu Ayman al-Masri. They asserted that during his confession he acknowledged he was a member of Tala'al al-Fateh, a branch of Egyptian Islamic Jihad as early as 1993, when members of the group went underground after it was suspected of being behind an attempt to assassinate Egyptian Prime Minister Atif Sidqi. Al-Banna escaped to Yemen where he was a member of a group led by brothers Ayman al-Zawahiri and Muhammad al-Zawahiri.

According to the Jamestown profile, al-Banna acknowledged he had trained Abd al-Mun’im bin Izz al-Din al-Badawi in intelligence.[2] Al-Badawi was to become head of intelligence for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The Jamestown's profile challenged several aspects of the admissions in al-Banna's interrogation.[2] They challenged the credibility of his claim that AQAP main source of weapons was a warlord in Sudan's wartorn Darfur region, because Darfur was a net importer of weapons, not an exporter. They challenged the credibility when he implicated Yemen's rebel Huthist, who are Shiite and al Qaeda are hardcore Sunnis.

References
  1. "Top Al Qaeda official killed in Yemen". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2011-10-15. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. Al-Banna was "in charge of the media arm of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" and was one of the group's "most dangerous operatives," it added.
  2. "Former AQAP intelligence chief describes Egyptian role in al-Qaeda". Jamestown Foundation. 2010-11-24. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. A Kuwaiti daily recently published a transcript of the interrogation of Shaykh Ibrahim Muhammad Salih al-Banna (a.k.a. Abu Ayman al-Masri), the Egyptian former intelligence chief of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) who was arrested in early August
  3. Tom Junod (2012-07-09). "The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama". Esquire magazine. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. It was initially reported that an Al Qaeda leader named Ibrahim al-Banna was among those killed, but then it was reported that al-Banna is still alive to this day.
  4. Mark Mazzetti; Charlie Savage; Scott Shane (March 9, 2013). "How a U.S. Citizen Came to Be in America's Cross Hairs". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-09-29. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  5. United States Department of State
  6. http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/ibrahim_al_banna.html
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