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Canceled
By Paul Bentley
Last updated at 1:07 PM on 7th May 2011
Osama Bin Laden's deputy led U.S. troops to the Al Qaeda leader's hideout so he could take over the terrorist group, it was claimed today.
Egyptian Ayman Al Zawahiri, who has been touted widely as the man who will succeed Bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, turned his back on his terrorist leader following a prolonged power struggle, according to a Saudi newspaper. The plot to get rid of Bin Laden began when Zawahiri’s faction persuaded bin Laden to leave the protection of the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Power struggle: This photograph from October 2001, one month after 9/11, shows Osama Bin Laden alongside his top lieutenant, Egyptian Ayman Al Zawahiri
Instead, they convinced him to set up home in Abbottabad, where he was finally killed by U.S. Navy SEALS earlier this week, a regional source told the Al-Watan newspaper. Zawahiri's Egyptian ally Saif Al Adel is said to have moved to Pakistan last autumn as Al Qaeda's 'chief of staff' after a period of house arrest in Iran.
With his return, Al Qaeda's Egyptian faction then hatched a plan to dispose of Saudi-born Bin Laden after irresolvable divisions developed between the terrorist group's top two men.
Judas? Al Qaeda's number two Ayman Al Zawahiri is said to have tipped off U.S. troops about the whereabouts of Bin Laden
'The Egyptian faction of Al Qaeda is de facto running the organisation now and since he was taken ill in 2004 they have been trying to take full control,' the paper wrote on Thursday. The courier who led U.S. forces to Bin Laden was a Pakistani national working for Zawahiri, according to the source. The man is said to have known he was being followed by American troops and to have intentionally led them to their target. Zawahiri met Bin Laden in the mid-1980s and they have since became the closest of allies, with analysts describing Zawahri as Al Qaeda's chief organiser and bin Laden's closest mentor.
Compound: The walled lair where Osama Bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan
Scene: The bloodied room inside the compound where Bin Laden was killed by U.S. troops in Abbottabad, Pakistan
As the terror group's number two, he has at times been Al Qaeda's most public face, often seen denouncing the United States and its allies in video messages
Yesterday it emerged American special forces troops had claimed a treasure trove of evidence from Bin Laden's lair, which they hope will lead them to other high-ranking leaders of Al Qaeda, including Zawahiri. After sweeping the fortress, forces are said to have found a haul of ten computers, ten mobile phones, and a hundred memory sticks.
Computer analysts, and experts in numerous languages, are now seeking to crack any encryption used to protect the various devices, before trawling through the mass of data held on them to see what it can tell them about the Al Qaeda terror network.
The suggestion that Zawahiri turned on Bin Laden and tipped off U.S. troops about his whereabouts comes as Al Qaeda confirmed its leader's death.
In a statement posted in jihadist internet forums, the group admitted Bin Laden had been killed in a raid on his suburban compound in Abbottabad.
But it also warned the U.S. that their leader's blood would not be 'wasted' and that American citizens' 'happiness will turn to sadness'.
The statement, signed by 'the general leadership' of the Al Qaeda, read: 'We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama Bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will not go in vain. We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.
'Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness. Their blood will be mingled with their tears.'
The confirmation by Al Qaeda of their leader's death will ease pressure off U.S. President Barack Obama after he faced criticism for refusing to release pictures of Bin Laden's dead body.
On Wednesday, Obama announced the U.S. would not make the pictures public for national security reasons.
The President said: 'We do not need to spike the football. That’s not who we are. We don’t trot this stuff out as trophies.'
Obama also maintained that there was no doubt among Al Qaeda members as to whether Bin Laden had been killed.
‘So we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference,’ he added.
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