World's five most dangerous men

Ayman al-Zawahiri

The new top dog at al-Qaeda (Arabic for The Base), the cleric has come a long way from his native Egypt to the tribal areas of Pakistan.  Politically active since his youth though he was a shy and studious child (he joined the Muslim Brotherhood at 14), al-Zawahiri was involved with the attempted overthrow of the Hosni Mubarak government since then.

A qualified surgeon, who saw to the wellbeing of Osama bin laden whom he met in Saudi Arabia in 1986. Osama, as the scion to a wealthy family, was doing his bit to aid Afghanistan against the Soviets by funneling money, arms and fighters from around the Arab world.

By 1991 Al-Zawahiri emerged as the second (and last) emir of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ). Since the late 70s, the EIJ sought to overthrow the Egyptian government and replace it with an Islamic state. When the banned group merged with al-Qaeda seven years later, al-Zawahiri served as lieutenant to Laden. Referred to by Laden’s biographer as the “real brains” behind the outfit, he became its official head after the loathed Laden was taken down by Navy SEALS in Abbottabad.

Al-Zawahiri’s own wife and three of his six children paid the price for his deep involvement in al-Qaeda since its founding in 1988,  by being gunned down in an air strike in Afghanistan by US forces in late 2001.

In pic: Ayman Al-Zawahri stands behind bars in an Egyptian court in 1982 during his trial as one of the masterminds behind the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981.