Info:
Muhammad Abbatay, better known as Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi, is Moroccan national and U.S.-designated leader for al-Qaeda. Al-Maghrebi allegedly is an Iran-based key leader, and the longtime director of al-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media arm;
The son-in-law of al-Qaeda co-founder, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Maghrebi allegedly left Morocco in 1996 to study software programming in Cologne, Germany. A few years later, in 1999, al-Maghrebi left Germany for Afghanistan to train at the al-Faruq camp near Kandahar before being pulled from training by Khalid Sheikh Muhammad—the head of both al-Qaeda’s External Operations and Media Committee—and was reassigned to work for al-Qaeda’s Media Committee;
Given al-Maghrebi’s software expertise and computer skills, al-Maghrebi quickly became an asset for the group’s Media Committee and eventually took on the role as director of al-Sahab—al-Qaeda’s media arm. Allegedly, after the fall of Afghanistan in 2001, al-Maghrebi fled to Iran but reportedly relocated to Pakistan in 2003;
According to documents recovered from the 2011 military operation against Osama bin Laden, al-Maghrebi has been a rising star in al-Qaeda for many years. In 2012, al-Maghrebi began serving as al-Qaeda’s general manager in Afghanistan and Pakistan, before relocating to Iran due to years of international counterterrorism pressure. While in Iran, al-Maghrebi became head of al-Qaeda’s External Communications Office where he supervised and coordinated al-Qaeda’s and al-Qaeda’s activities worldwide;
Ideologies and Affiliations:
Jihadist, pan-Islamist, Qutbist, Salafist, Sunni, takfiri
Also Known As:
Mohamed Abbatay
Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi
Abdul Rahman al-Maghrebi
Muhammad Abaytah
Involved In:
Terrorist Organization
Born:
01 Jul 1970
POB:
Marrakech, Morocco
Nationality:
Morocco
Country:
Iran
Address:
Tehran, Iran
Reason for the color:
» The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Muhammad Abbatay as a Specially Designated National on January 12, 2021;
» The U.S. Department of State designated Muhammad Abbatay as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on January 12, 2021;