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Who killed Abdallah Azzam? Here’s a thread on the biggest murder mystery in the history of Islamism, which happened #OnThisDay 30 years ago. I spent 12 years writing his biography, so I’ll share some new info and rare pictures
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In 1989, Abdallah Azzam was the most influential jihadi ideologue in the world. A Palestinian preacher and Muslim Brother, he led had the mobilization of Arab fighters to Afghanistan in the 1980s. Widely published, well travelled, he was something of an Islamist superstar
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The assassination happened in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Friday 24 Nov 1989 at 12.20pm. Azzam had almost reached the “Arab mosque”, where he was due to give the Friday sermon, when a roadside bomb exploded under the car, killing him and his sons Muhammad and Ibrahim
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The explosion killed the sons instantly and left Azzam himself mortally wounded (he perished on the way to or in hospital.) The state of the car wreck and the crater in the pics below testify to the power of the explosion
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The incident was a shock not just to the Afghan Arab community but also to the wider Islamist movement. Thousands attended the funeral in Pabbi that evening, and commemorations were staged in many countries. Hundreds of obituaries and poems were written the following weeks
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The assassination puzzled observers. Who would kill a religious cleric, let alone someone as venerated as Azzam? And why at this time, at the tail end of the war? The Russians had withdrawn in February 1989, and many Afghan Arabs were returning home that autumn
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People close to Azzam knew that something had been brewing, however. Three weeks before the assassination, al-Jihad magazine reported that a bomb had been found under Azzam's pulpit in the Arab mosque. Still, nobody understood exactly who was after him
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There was a local police investigation of the assassination, but it yielded nothing, and nobody was ever charged. This gave rise to a huge amount of speculation, but the case was never solved. Are we any closer today?
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Let's look at the forensics. The bomb reportedly consisted of 20kgs explosives (type unclear). There were actually two devices, one on either side of a small bridge over a ditch. A wire connected the two devices and continued down the ditch. Where the wire led is not clear
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We can make some additional observations. First, whoever did it must have wanted to create a spectacle and scare the Arabs, for there were easier ways to kill Azzam, for example in a drive-by shooting. Azzam's house was well known, and he appeared in public often
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Second, perpetrators must have had eyes on the target, because other cars crossed the same bridge unhurt around same time. They must also have been competent, as it's difficult to hit a single car in motion at a specific location. It must have taken a team of operatives
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Third, whoever did it had excellent operational security. Not easy to rig the devices beforehand, have eyes on site during the attack, and extract afterward, all without Pakistani police or intelligence noticing
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These observations can help navigate the many theories on who killed Azzam. Whoever did it must have had 1) the motivation to do it in this way at this time and 2) the capacity to carry it out and get away undetected
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Was it Bin Laden or al-Zawahiri? I doubt it, as the reputational cost of a botched attempt would have been devastating. Also, their enmity w Azzam was not that severe, and it's not clear they had the capacity. Besides, no precedent for Afghan Arabs killing each other in 80s
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Was it a foreign intel service like CIA or Mossad? I just don't think Azzam was important enough. US was withdrawing from Afghan war, and Mossad was busy w Pal intifada and Hezbollah. Jordan and Saudi were not in business of assassinating Islamists abroad at the time
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A more likely candidate would be KhAD, the intel service of the Communist regime in Kabul. They operated extensively in Peshawar and must have known of Azzam. But why take him out at the end of the war?
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An oft-cited suspect is Hekmatyar, the Afghan Mujahidin leader. In 88-89, Azzam befriended Massoud, Hekmatyar's rival. Hek also had a history of liquidating enemies. But new research (by both me and Chris Sands) shows Azzam and Hekmatyar were good friends to the end
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This leaves us with Pakistan's own intel service ISI, which may have wanted the Arabs gone after the Soviet withdrawal. ISI also disliked Azzam's rapprochement with Massoud. And Azzam criticized the Pakistani government in 88-89. But no hard evidence pins ISI to the crime
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So I'm afraid I've made you read all this just to say the mystery remains unsolved. Overall, I consider ISI to be the most likely candidate, but I cannot be sure. We will probably never know the answer unless secret docs are unclassified or a key witness decides to tell all
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The Azzam assassination is more than a murder mystery though; it had important consequences. Azzam's death notably accelerated the fragmentation and radicalization of the jihadi movement, helping produce groups like al-Qaida. I have an op-ed coming out soon about this
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The assassination also turned Azzam into legend. He is admired today across entire spectrum of Islamist actors, from Muslim Brotherhood via Hamas to AQ and ISIS. The way he died - and the fact that he died early - has much to do with this
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That's it for today. Thanks for reading this far! If you're interested in learning more about Azzam and the early history of the jihadi movement, my book "The Caravan" (azzambook.net) will be out on 5 March
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