Atef Death Would Be Major Blow
Nov. 17, 2001 — -- America has eliminated the military brains of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, who trained members in the art of terror and wrote a handbook to guide them.
"Bin Laden had the money," ABCNEWS terrorism consultant Kyle Olson said. "Atef had the … military thinking required to realize it. I think it's safe to say that bin Laden may not have been the kind of threat he is without Mohammed Atef."
Atef, an Egyptian, was believed to have played a central role in planning past terrorist attacks on the United States, and was on the FBI's list of 22 most-wanted terrorists, with a $25 million bounty on his head.
Most notably, Atef was indicted by a federal court in Manhattan for his alleged role in planning the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 224 people.
"Mohammed Atef is an extremely significant figure in the upper echelons of al Qaeda," said Matt Levitt, senior fellow in terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "His death is certainly a significant blow."
A Taliban official confirmed to the Associated Press earlier American intelligence reports that Atef had died in a bombing raid. Mullah Najibullah, a Taliban official in the southeast Afghan border town of Spinboldak, said seven other al Qaeda members — not including bin Laden — died with Atef, but he would not name them.
Along with bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, Atef was considered one of the top three members in the command structure of al Qaeda. A U.S. intelligence report alleges he founded the organization with bin Laden about a decade ago, and U.S. federal prosecutors have said he was bin Laden's military commander in charge of terrorist training at specialized al Qaeda camps. Many believe he also wrote a manual intended as a tactical guide for terrorists.
"In his role as, essentially, the battle lieutenant for bin Laden, he has been responsible for, among other things, the development of the military forces within Afghanistan that have been loyal to al Qaeda, that have been al Qaeda's real muscle in that country," Olson said. "And it's almost certain that he was involved in some of the thinking, some of the planning into the Sept. 11 attacks."
Related Stories
ABC News Live