Senior aide to Al Qaida’s Zawahiri captured in Egypt

Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — A leading aide to Al Qaida commander Ayman Zawahiri has been captured in Egypt.

Tharwat Salah Shehata, designated by the United Nations as an Al Qaida affiliate, was arrested by Egyptian security forces in the Nile city of Sharqiya.

Ayman Al Zawahiri
Ayman Zawahiri

The 53-year-old Shehata was said to have trained Muslims for attacks throughout Egypt.

“Shehata has worked with Zawahiri for more than 30 years,” a security source said.

The sources said Shehata, trained as an attorney, played a major role in the Islamist revolt in wake of the military’s overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. They said Shehata, a former leader in Egypt’s Islamic Jihad, joined Al Qaida with Zawahiri and worked in Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen.

In Libya, Shehata was said to have trained Islamist fighters for operations in Egypt. The sources said Shehata, arrested by the National Security Service and the General Intelligence Department, would be tried in connection with a plot to assassinate Egypt’s then-Prime Minister Atef Sidqi in 1994.

The sources said Shehata was also a senior member of Ansar Al Sharia.
They said Shehata was linked to the killing of seven Egyptians in Libya in
March 2014.

“A short time later, Shehata returned to Egypt on a forged passport,”
the source said.

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