Saif al-Islam el-Masry

Saif al-Islam el-masry (Arabic: سيف الإسلام المصري‎‎) is the name of a certain member of al-Qaeda. The name is probably, but not certainly, a nom de guerre; Saif al-Islam means Sword of Islam and el-Masry means the Egyptian, but either or both could be a real name. Little is publicly known about this person, but his name has come up in reports and testimony on a variety of major terrorist attacks and related paramilitary and financial activities. According to those sources, Saif al-Islam

• was one of fifteen men—all Arabs—captured in the Pankisi Gorge in a joint operation by Georgian and American Special Forces, in early October 2002^[1][2]
• was until then a member of al-Qaeda's majlis al-shura^[3] and its military committee^[1]
• was handed over to the Americans^[4]
• ran the Jihad Wal training camp near Khost, Afghanistan in 1992^[5]
• had been an officer of the Chechnya branch of the terrorist charity Benevolence International Foundation^[3]
• fought against American forces in Somalia^[1]
• instructed Ali Mohamed to get training from Hezbollah in south Lebanon.^[6]

References

1. Al-Qaida: Dead or captured, MSNBC, last updated in 2005
2. In the Caucasus, a Foreign Element Threatens, CDI archive of a Los Angeles Times article of 29 November 2002
3. Treasury Designates Benevolence International Foundation and Related Entities as Financiers of Terrorism, United States Department of the Treasury
4. Behind the Moscow-theater attack by Mark Riebling and R.P. Eddy, National Review, 24 October 2002
5. Saif al Islam el Masry at GlobalSecurity.org; cites forensic and other sources
6. Bin Laden's "Brothers" by Thomas Joscelyn, Weekly Standard, 27 September 2006; quoting Ali Mohamed's testimony