Zawahiri most-wanted man after Laden

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ISLAMABAD: Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian surgeon considered the real mastermind of the global terror franchise, is now set to succeed Osama bin Laden as the world's most wanted man.

Like his Saudi-born co-conspirator, Zawahiri has been hiding ever since the United States declared its war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Unlike his late comrade, who President Barack Obama said was killed by US forces in Pakistan, Zawahiri is presumed still at large with organisational skills, cunning and intelligence said to eclipse that of bin Laden.

Reportedly last seen in October 2001 in eastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, he has released multiple videos from his hiding, calling for war on the West.

While bin Laden was seen as Al-Qaeda's inspiration, his deputy is believed to be the real brains that steered operations, including the September 11 attacks, and as a result arguably even more dangerous.

The former eye surgeon's position as bin Laden's main strategist and mentor earned the 59-year-old a $25 million bounty on his head.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of most wanted terrorists said he was also bin Laden's personal doctor.

As bin Laden withdrew from the public eye after 2004, it was often up to Zawahiri -- identifiable by a prominent lump on his forehead -- to motivate the group's followers with a series of hectoring video appearances, jabbing his finger and staring from behind heavy-rimmed glasses.

Zawahiri met bin Laden when thousands of Islamist fighters from around the world flooded into Afghanistan during the 1980s "jihad", or holy war, against Soviet forces.

Zawahiri hails from a wealthy Egyptian family. His father was a reputed physician and one of his grandfathers a prayer leader at Cairo's Al-Azhar institute, the highest authority for Sunni Muslims.

He became involved with Egypt's radical Muslim community at a young age and was reportedly arrested as young as 15 for being a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world's oldest fundamentalist group.

He has published several books and studies on Islamic fundamentalism, which came for many to symbolize the radical Islamist movement.

He married in 1979 and trained as a surgeon in Cairo.

Zawahiri was jailed for three years in Egypt for militancy and was implicated in the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat and the massacre of foreign tourists at the city of Luxor in 1997. (AFP)