Essam al-Qamari

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Qamari was a courageous man who did not fear anyone in his struggle to follow the path of God, even to the extent of rashness. It was the rashness which caused him a lot of problems with his brethren from the Islamist movements...

— Montasser el-Zayat[1]

Essam Al-Qamari (Arabic: عصام القمري, alias Zakariyya[2]) was a decorated tank commander and Major in the Egyptian army who smuggled weapons and ammunition from army strongholds for al-Jihad as a "disciple" of the late Sayyid Qutb.[3][4]

In February 1981, Egyptian police arrested a man smuggling weapons who was carrying a map of the military's tank placements. Realising that he would likely be implicated, al-Qamari took the opportunity to disappear.[4] He is believed to have hidden at a apartment owned by Muhammad Abdelrahim al-Sharqawi, that generated profits as a turnery, before acquiring another apartment in Giza with help from .[1][2] Meanwhile, he acquired a number of hand grenades for Abbud al-Zumar, and experimented trying to build a timer-detonator using a fan and a broken light bulb, although it failed.[2]

He later strenuously opposed Omar Abdel-Rahman's leadership of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya with other jihadist groups following the assassination of Anwar Sadat.[5]

In 1988, he escaped from prison along with and , ostensibly aided by .[1]

When Ayman al-Zawahiri was arrested, he was immediately asked the whereabouts of al-Qamari and told them he was staying at the Gamaliyya turnery. Since they had spoken earlier in the day about meeting at the , Zawahiri agreed to meet as scheduled and allow the Egyptians to arrest al-Qamari when he entered. He was arrested while performing the Nafl salat.[1][6]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d El-Zayyat, Montasser, "The Road to al-Qaeda", 2004. tr. by Ahmed Fakry
  2. ^ a b c Higher State Security Court of Egypt, "Confession of Ayman al-Zawahiri: Case #462", 1981.
  3. ^ Gerges, Fawaz A. "The Far Enemy", Cambridge University Press, 2005. p. 36
  4. ^ a b Wright, Lawrence. , "Ayman al-Zawahiri: The Man Behind Bin Laden", March 2003
  5. ^ al-Zayat, Montasser, "The Road to al-Qaeda", 2002
  6. ^ Raphaeli, Nimrod (Winter 2002). "Ayman Muhammad Rabi' Al-Zawahiri: The Making of an Arch Terrorist". Terrorism and Political Violence. 14 (4): 1–22. doi:10.1080/714005636. Cited in "Ayman Muhammad Rabi' Al-Zawahiri". The Jewish Virtual Library. 2003-03-11. Retrieved 2006-08-29.


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