After al-Zawahri's death, U.S. most wanted list includes two dozen accused terrorists

Rick Rouan, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The death of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri by the U.S. last weekend crossed a name off the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists.

The list of 25 suspected terrorists includes several people wanted for their alleged roles in attacks dating back as far as 1985, with information leading to their arrest carrying multimillion-dollar rewards.

Who is Ayman al-Zawahri?: Master strategist for al-Qaida was Osama bin Laden's mentor, then successor

Al-Zawahri, who began as Osama bin Laden’s mentor before taking over as leader of al-Qaida after bin Laden’s death in 2011, was wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program offered a $25 million bounty for information leading to his apprehension.

Suspected terrorists on the FBI’s Most Wanted lists have been charged with federal crimes and remain on the list until charges are dropped or physical evidence “proves with 100% accuracy” that they have died. The FBI’s list is separate from the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, though there is overlap between the two.

Here are some of the most notorious alleged terrorists still wanted in the U.S.

In this 1998 file photo made available Friday, March 19, 2004, Ayman al-Zawahri, left, holds a press conference with Osama bin Laden in Khost, Afghanistan. For years, the two worked hand-in-glove to build out al-Qaida’s global terrorist reach and capabilities, with bin Laden acting as the public face of the organization and Zawahri as a master strategist with a deep understanding of Islamic theology.

Sirajuddin Haqqani

Sirajuddin Haqqani is the leader of the Haqqani Network, a Pakistan-based Islamist militant organization with ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Haqqani leads the day-to-day activities of the organization founded by his father along with other family members, according to the Rewards for Justice program.

During the war in Afghanistan, the Haqqanis were considered "the most lethal and sophisticated insurgent group targeting US, Coalition, and Afghan forces in Afghanistan," conducting "coordinated small-arms assaults coupled with rocket attacks, IEDs, suicide attacks, and attacks using bomb-laden vehicles," according to the program.

The network was responsible for several high-profile attacks during the war in Afghanistan, according to the program, but Haqqani is wanted for questioning about the January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul that killed six, including an American. He also was allegedly involved in a 2008 assassination attempt against then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai, according to the FBI.

Sajid Mir

Sajid Mir is a senior member of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terrorist organization, according to the Rewards for Justice program. He is wanted for what the program describes as a "leading role" he played in planning and executing terrorist attacks in November 2008 across Mumbai.

During those three days of attacks, 170 people were killed in hotels, cafés and a train station, according to the FBI, including six Americans. Mir allegedly led the planning of the attack and was among those who oversaw its execution. He was indicted in 2011 for his alleged role in the attack.

Mir also is accused of plotting a terrorist attack against a newspaper in Denmark in 2008 and 2009.

Abdul Rahman Yasin

Abdul Rahman Yasin is wanted for his alleged role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York that killed six people.

Yasin was born in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1960, but soon after moved to Iraq, according to the Rewards for Justice Program. He returned to the U.S. in 1992, shortly before the World Trade Center bombing on Feb. 26, 1993.

Yasin allegedly accompanied the mastermind of the attack to the World Trade Center to deposit a truck full of explosives in an underground parking lot, where it was detonated. He was indicted for his alleged role in the attack but fled to Iraq.

Yasin was the only person involved with the bombing to escape justice, according to CBS News. In a 2002 interview with the network, Yasin said the FBI interrogated him about the attack but let him go. He was imprisoned in Iraq but not charged with a crime.

Jaber A. Elbaneh

Jaber Elbaneh was charged in 2003 with providing material support to a terrorist organization, according to the FBI. He is accused of being part of a group of Yemeni-American men who allegedly traveled to an al-Qaida training camp in 2001, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Elbaneh, who was born in Yemen, was a salesman and a taxi driver in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., before joining a group of militants and returning to his homeland where he became part of the local al-Qaida affiliate.

He was the seventh man in an al-Qaida sleeper cell in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna dubbed the "Lackawanna Six." Six other men pleaded guilty to attending the al-Farqooq camp in Afghanistan where they met with bin Laden in 2001, according to the Associated Press, but Elbaneh remains at large.

Liban Haji Mohamed

Liban Haji Mohamed, a Somali-born naturalized U.S. citizen living in Alexandria, Virginia, was indicted in 2020 with conspiring and attempting to provide support to a terrorist organization. Mohamed allegedly joined al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization in Somalia, in 2012.

Mohamed was accused of trying to recruit an undercover agent to train al-Shabaab combat fighters and to bolster the organization's "propaganda machine, which it has used to recruit Westerners," according to the Justice Department.

A warrant for his arrest was issued in 2015, adding him to the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. 

Contributing: Josh Meyer

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Terrorism: FBI most wanted list shrinks after al-Zawahri death