Mohammed Atef
Al-Qaida Leader
Died when: 83 years 194 days (1002 months)Star Sign: Taurus
Mohammed Atef (Arabic: محمد عاطف, Muḥammad ʿĀṭif; born Sobhi Mohammed Abu Sitta Al-Gohary, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri) was the military chief of al-Qaeda, and was considered one of Osama bin Laden's two deputies, the other being Ayman Al Zawahiri, although Atef's role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years.
He was killed in a US airstrike in November 2001.Atef served two years in the Egyptian Air Force and became an agricultural engineer.
He was also a police officer and a member of the group Egyptian Islamic Jihad before he moved to Afghanistan to repel the Soviet invasion, while operating from Peshawar.
He has been credited as having convinced Abdullah Azzam to abandon his life and devote himself to preaching jihad at this time.
Atef was sent to an Afghan training camp where he met Ayman al-Zawahiri, who later introduced him to Osama bin Laden.
He attended two meetings from August 11 to 20 in 1988, along with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, Jamal al-Fadl, Wa'el Hamza Julaidan, and Mohammed Loay Bayazid and eight others, to discuss the founding of "al-Qaeda".
Bin Laden later sent a letter to Mohammed Loay Bayazid informing him that Atef and Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri were to each be given 6,500 Saudi riyals monthly, the same as they had been given for their work in Maktab al-Khidamat.