Prompt: Question: Tell me a bio of Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Ayman al-Zawahiri

<s>Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (); June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death on July 31, 2022. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with a degree in medicine and a master's degree in surgery and was a surgeon by profession. He became a leading figure in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, an Egyptian Islamist organization, and eventually attained the rank of emir. He was imprisoned from 1981 to 1984 for his role in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. His actions against the Egyptian government, including his planning of the 1995 attack on the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan, resulted in him being sentenced to death "in absentia" during the 1999 "Returnees from Albania" trial. A close associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri held significant sway over the group's operations. Al-Zawahiri was wanted by the United States and the United Nations, respectively, for his role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and in the 2002 Bali bombings. He merged

Ayman al-Zawahiri

the Egyptian Islamic Jihad with al-Qaeda in 2001 and formally became bin Laden's deputy in 2004. He succeeded bin Laden as al-Qaeda's leader after bin Laden's death in 2011. In May 2011, the U.S. announced a $25 million bounty for information leading to his capture. On July 31, 2022, al-Zawahiri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan.</s><s>Personal life.</s><s>Personal life.:Early life. Ayman al-Zawahiri was born June 19, 1951, in Giza, in what was then the Kingdom of Egypt, to Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri and Umayma Azzam. "The New York Times" in 2001 described al-Zawahiri as coming from "a prosperous and prestigious family that gives him a pedigree grounded firmly in both religion and politics". Al-Zawahiri's parents both came from prosperous families. Al-Zawahiri's father, Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, came from a large family of doctors and scholars from Kafr Ash Sheikh Dhawahri, Sharqia, in which one of his grandfathers was Sheikh Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zaw

Ayman al-Zawahiri

ahiri (1887–1944) who was the 34th Grand Imam of al-Azhar. Mohammed Rabie became a surgeon and a professor of pharmacy at Cairo University. Ayman Al-Zawahiri's mother, Umayma Azzam, came from a wealthy, politically active clan, the daughter of Abdel-Wahhab Azzam, a literary scholar who served as the president of Cairo University, the founder and inaugural rector of the King Saud University (the first university in Saudi Arabia) as well as ambassador to Pakistan, while his own brother was Azzam Pasha, the founding secretary-general of the Arab League (1945–1952). From his maternal side yet another relative was Salem Azzam, an Islamist intellectual and activist, for a time secretary-general of the "Islamic Council of Europe" based in London. The wealthy and prestigious family is also linked to the Red Sea Harbi tribe in Zawahir, a small town in Saudi Arabia, located in the Badr. He also has a maternal link to the house of Saud: Muna, the daughter of Azzam Pasha (his maternal great-uncle), is married to Mohammed bin Faisal Al Saud, the son of the

Ayman al-Zawahiri

late King Faisal. Ayman Al-Zawahiri said that he has a deep affection for his mother. Her brother, Mahfouz Azzam, became a role model for him as a teenager. He has a younger brother, Muhammad al-Zawahiri, and a twin sister, Heba Mohamed al-Zawahiri. Heba became a professor of medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. She described her brother as "silent and shy". Muhammad was sentenced on charges of undergoing military training in Albania in 1998. He was arrested in the UAE in 1999, and sentenced to death in 1999 after being extradited to Egypt. He was held in Tora Prison in Cairo as a political detainee. Security officials said he was the head of the Special Action Committee of Islamic Jihad, which organized terrorist operations. After the Egyptian popular uprising in the spring of 2011, on March 17, 2011, he was released from prison by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the interim government of Egypt. His lawyer said he had been held to extract information about his brother Ayman al-Zawahiri. On March 20, 2011, he was re-arrested. On August 17, 2013, Egyptian

Ayman al-Zawahiri

authorities arrested Muhammad al-Zawahiri at his home in Giza. He was acquitted in 2017.</s><s>Personal life.:Early life.:Youth. Ayman al-Zawahiri was reportedly a studious youth. He excelled in school, loved poetry, and "hated violent sports", which he thought were "inhumane." Al-Zawahiri studied medicine at Cairo University and graduated in 1974 with "gayyid giddan", or roughly on par with a grade of "B" in the American grading system. Following that, he served 1974–1978 as a surgeon in the Egyptian Army after which he established a clinic near his parents in Maadi. In 1978, he also earned a master's degree in surgery. He spoke Arabic, English, and French. Al-Zawahiri participated in youth activism as a student. He became both quite pious and political, under the influence of his uncle Mahfouz Azzam, and lecturer Mostafa Kamel Wasfi. Sayyid Qutb preached that to restore Islam and free Muslims, a vanguard of true Muslims modeling itself after the original Companions of the Prophet had to be developed. Ayman al-Zawahiri was influenced by Q

Ayman al-Zawahiri

utb's Manichaean views on Islamic theology and Islamic history.</s><s>Personal life.:Early life.:Underground cell. By the age of 15, al-Zawahiri had formed an underground cell with the goal to overthrow the government and establish an Islamist state. The following year the Egyptian government executed Sayyid Qutb for conspiracy. Following the execution, al-Zawahiri, along with four other secondary school students, helped form an "underground cell devoted to overthrowing the government and establishing an Islamist state." It was at this early age that al-Zawahiri developed a mission in life, "to put Qutb's vision into action." His cell eventually merged with others to form al-Jihad or Egyptian Islamic Jihad.</s><s>Personal life.:Marriages and children. Ayman al-Zawahiri was married at least four times. His wives include Azza Ahmed Nowari and Umaima Hassan. In 1978, al-Zawahiri married his first wife, Azza Ahmed Nowari, a student at Cairo University who was studying philosophy. Their wedding, which was held at the Continental Hotel in Opera Square, was very conservative, with separate areas for both men and women, and no

Ayman al-Zawahiri

music, photographs, or gaiety in general. Many years later, when the United States attacked Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks in October 2001, Azza apparently had no idea that al-Zawahiri had supposedly been a jihadi emir (commander) for the last decade. Al-Zawahiri and his wife, Azza, had four daughters, Fatima (born 1981), Umayma (born 1983), Nabila (born 1986), and Khadiga (born 1987), and a son, Mohammed (also born in 1987; the twin brother of Khadiga), who was a "delicate, well-mannered boy" and "the pet of his older sisters," subject to teasing and bullying in a traditionally all-male environment, who preferred to "stay at home and help his mother." In 1997, ten years after the birth of Mohammed, Azza gave birth to their fifth daughter, Aisha, who had Down syndrome. In February 2004, Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded and subsequently stated that Abu Turab Al-Urduni had married one of al-Zawahiri's daughters. Ayman al-Zawahiri's first wife Azza and two of their six children, Mohammad

Ayman al-Zawahiri

and Aisha, were killed in an airstrike on Afghanistan by US forces in late December 2001, following the September 11 attacks on the U.S. After an American aerial bombardment of a Taliban-controlled building at Gardez, Azza was pinned under the debris of a guesthouse roof. Concerned for her modesty, she "refused to be excavated" because "men would see her face" and she died from her injuries the following day. Her son, Mohammad, was also killed outright in the same house. Her four-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, Aisha, had not been hurt by the bombing, but died from exposure in the cold night while Afghan rescuers tried to save Azza. In the first half of 2005, one of Al-Zawahiri's three surviving wives gave birth to a daughter, named Nawwar. In June 2012, one of al-Zawahiri's four wives, Umaima Hassan, released a statement on the internet congratulating the role played by Muslim women in the Arab Spring. She is also known to have written a leaflet explaining women's role in jihad.</s><s>Medical career. In 1981, Ayman al-Zawahiri traveled to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he

Ayman al-Zawahiri

worked in a Red Crescent hospital treating wounded refugees. There, he became friends with Ahmed Khadr, and the two shared a number of conversations about the need for Islamic government and the needs of the Afghan people. Ayman al-Zawahiri worked as a surgeon. In 1985, al-Zawahiri went to Saudi Arabia on Hajj and stayed to practice medicine in Jeddah for a year. As a reportedly qualified surgeon, when his organization merged with bin Laden's al-Qaeda, he became bin Laden's personal advisor and physician. He had first met bin Laden in Jeddah in 1986. According to other sources, they met the first time in 1986 at a hospital in Peshawar. In 1993, al-Zawahiri traveled to the United States, where he addressed several mosques in California under his "Abdul Mu'iz" pseudonym, relying on his credentials from the Kuwaiti Red Crescent to raise money for Afghan children who had been injured by Soviet land mines—he raised only $2000.</s><s>Militant activity.</s><s>Militant activity.:Assassination plots.</s><s>Militant activity.:Assassination plots.:Egypt. In 1981, Al-Zawahiri was one of hundreds arrested

Ayman al-Zawahiri

following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Initially, the plan was derailed when authorities were alerted to Al-Jihad's plan by the arrest of an operative carrying crucial information, in February 1981. President Sadat ordered the roundup of more than 1,500 people, including many Al-Jihad members, but missed a cell in the military led by Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, who succeeded in assassinating Sadat during a military parade that October. His lawyer, Montasser el-Zayat, said that al-Zawahiri was tortured in prison. In his book, "Al-Zawahiri as I Knew Him", Al-Zayat maintains that under torture by the Egyptian police, following his arrest in connection with the murder of Sadat in 1981, Al-Zawahiri revealed the hiding place of Essam al-Qamari, a key member of the Maadi cell of al-Jihad, which led to Al-Qamari's "arrest and eventual execution." Cited in  He was released from prison in 1984. In 1993, al-Zawahiri's and Egyptian Islamic Jihad's (EIJ) connection with Iran may have led to a suicide bombing in an attempt on

Ayman al-Zawahiri

the life of Egyptian Interior Minister Hasan al-Alfi, the man heading the effort to quash the campaign of Islamist killings in Egypt. It failed, as did an attempt to assassinate Egyptian prime minister Atef Sidqi three months later. The bombing of Sidqi's car injured 21 Egyptians and killed a schoolgirl, Shayma Abdel-Halim. It followed two years of killings by another Islamist group, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, that had killed over 200 people. Her funeral became a public spectacle, with her coffin carried through the streets of Cairo and crowds shouting, "Terrorism is the enemy of God!" The police arrested 280 more of al-Jihad's members and executed six. For their leading role in anti-Egyptian Government attacks in the 1990s, al-Zawahiri and his brother Muhammad al-Zawahiri were sentenced to death in the 1999 Egyptian case of the Returnees from Albania.</s><s>Militant activity.:Assassination plots.:Pakistan. The 1995 attack on the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was carried out by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad under al-Zawahiri's leadership, but Bin Laden had disapproved of the operation. The bombing alienated Pakistan, which

Ayman al-Zawahiri

was "the best route into Afghanistan". In July 2007, Al-Zawahiri supplied direction for the Lal Masjid siege, codename Operation Silence. This was the first confirmed time that Al-Zawahiri was taking militant steps against the Pakistani Government and guiding Islamic militants against the State of Pakistan. The Pakistan Army troops and Special Service Group taking control of the Lal Masjid ("Red Mosque") in Islamabad found letters from al-Zawahiri directing Islamic militants Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz Ghazi, who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah. This conflict resulted in 100 deaths. On December 27, 2007, al-Zawahiri was also implicated in the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.</s><s>Militant activity.:Assassination plots.:Sudan. In 1994, the sons of Ahmad Salama Mabruk and Mohammed Sharaf were executed under al-Zawahiri's leadership for betraying Egyptian Islamic Jihad; the militants were ordered to leave the Sudan.</s><s>Militant activity.:Assassination plots.:United States. In 1998, Ayman al-Zawahiri was listed as under indictment in the United States for his role in

Ayman al-Zawahiri

the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: a series of attacks on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the major East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. In 2000, the USS "Cole" bombing encouraged several members to depart. Mohammed Atef escaped to Kandahar, al-Zawahiri to Kabul, and Bin Laden also fled to Kabul, later joining Atef when he realised no American reprisal attacks were forthcoming. On October 10, 2001, al-Zawahiri appeared on the initial list of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by U.S. President George W. Bush. In early November 2001, the Taliban government announced they were bestowing official Afghan citizenship on him, as well as Bin Laden, Mohammed Atef, Saif al-Adl, and Shaykh Asim Abdulrahman.</s><s>Militant activity.:Organizations.</s><s>Militant activity.:Organizations.:Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Al-Zawahiri began reconstituting the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ

Ayman al-Zawahiri

) along with other exiled militants. In Peshwar, al-Zawahiri was thought to have become radicalized by other Al-Jihad members, abandoning his old strategy of a swift coup d'état to change society from above, and embracing the idea of takfir. In 1991, EIJ broke with al-Zumur, and al-Zawahiri grabbed "the reins of power" to become EIJ leader. Ayman al-Zawahiri was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life imprisonment. Ayman al-Zawahiri eventually became one of Egyptian Islamic Jihad's leading organizers and recruiters. Al-Zawahiri's hope was to recruit military officers and accumulate weapons, waiting for the right moment to launch "a complete overthrow of the existing order." Chief strategist of Al-Jihad was Aboud al-Zumar, a colonel in the military intelligence whose plan was to kill the main leaders of the country, capture the headquarters of the army and State Security, the telephone exchange building, and of course the radio and television building, where news

Ayman al-Zawahiri

of the Islamic revolution would then be broadcast, unleashing – he expected – "a popular uprising against secular authority all over the country."</s><s>Militant activity.:Organizations.:Maktab al-Khadamat. In Peshawar, he made contact with Osama bin Laden, who was running a base for "mujahideen" called Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK); founded by the Palestinian Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. The radical position of al-Zawahiri and the other militants of Al-Jihad put them at odds with Sheikh Azzam, with whom they competed for bin Laden's financial resources. Al-Zawahiri carried two false passports, a Swiss one in the name of Amin Uthman and a Dutch one in the name of Mohmud Hifnawi. British journalist Jason Burke wrote: "Al-Zawahiri ran his own operation during the Afghan war, bringing in and training volunteers from the Middle East. Some of the $500 million the CIA poured into Afghanistan reached his group." Former FBI agent Ali Soufan mentioned in his book "The Black Banners" that Ayman al-Zawahiri is suspected of ordering Azzam's assassination in 1989

Ayman al-Zawahiri

.</s><s>Militant activity.:Organizations.:Al-Qaeda. According to reports by a former al-Qaeda member, al-Zawahiri worked in the al-Qaeda organization since its inception and was a senior member of the group's "shura" council. He was often described as a "lieutenant" to Osama bin Laden, though bin Laden's chosen biographer has referred to him as the "real brains" of al-Qaeda. On February 23, 1998, al-Zawahiri issued a joint fatwa with Osama bin Laden under the title "World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders". Al-Zawahiri, not bin Laden, is thought to have been the actual author of the fatwa. Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri organized an al-Qaeda congress on June 24, 1998. A week prior to the beginning of the conference, a group of well-armed assistants to al-Zawahiri had left by jeeps in the direction of Herat. Following the instructions of their patron, in the town of Koh-i-Doshakh, they met three unknown Slavic-looking men who had arrived from Russia via Iran. After their arrival in Kandahar, they split up.

Ayman al-Zawahiri

One of the Russians was directly escorted to al-Zawahiri and he did not participate in the conference. Western military intelligence succeeded in acquiring photographs of him, but he disappeared for six years. According to Axis Globe, in 2004, when Qatar and the U.S. investigated Russian embassy officials whom the United Arab Emirates had arrested in connection to the murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar, computer software precisely established that a man who had walked to the Russian embassy in Doha was the same one who visited al-Zawahiri prior to the Al-Qaida conference. Al-Zawahiri was placed under international sanctions in 1999 by the United Nations' Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee as a member of the Salafi-jihadist group al-Qaeda. In June 2001, al-Zawahiri formally merged the Egyptian Islamic Jihad into al-Qaeda. In late 2001, a computer was seized that was stolen from an office used by al-Qaeda immediately after the fall of Kabul in November. This computer was mainly used by al-Zawahiri and contained the letter with an interview request for Ahmad Shah Massoud. The journalists who conducted the interview assassinated Massoud on September 9, 2001.</s><s>

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Militant activity.:Organizations.:Al-Qaeda.:Emergence as al-Qaeda's chief commander. In late 2004 bin Laden named al-Zawahiri officially as his deputy. On April 30, 2009, the U.S. State Department reported that al-Zawahiri had emerged as al-Qaeda's operational and strategic commander, and that Osama bin Laden was now only the ideological figurehead of the organization. After the 2011 death of bin Laden, a senior U.S. intelligence official said intelligence gathered in the raid showed that bin Laden remained deeply involved in planning: "This compound (where bin Laden was killed) in Abbottabad was an active command-and-control center for al-Qaeda's leader. He was active in operational planning and in driving tactical decisions within al-Qaeda." Following the death of bin Laden, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism Juan Zarate said that al-Zawahiri would "clearly assume the mantle of leadership" of al-Qaeda. A senior U.S. administration official said that although al-Zawahiri was likely to be al-Qaeda's next leader, his authority was not "universally accepted" among al-Qaeda's followers,

Ayman al-Zawahiri

particularly in the Gulf region. Zarate said that al-Zawahiri was more controversial and less charismatic than bin Laden. Rashad Mohammad Ismail (AKA "Abu Al-Fida"), a leading member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, stated that al-Zawahiri was the best candidate. Hamid Mir is reported to have said that he believed that Ayman al-Zawahiri was the operational head of al-Qaeda, and that "[h]e is the person who can do the things that happened on September 11." Within days of the attacks, al-Zawahiri's name was put forward as bin Laden's second-in-command, with reports suggesting he represented "a more formidable US foe than bin Laden."</s><s>Militant activity.:Organizations.:Al-Qaeda.:Formal appointment. Al-Zawahiri became the leader of al-Qaeda following the May 2, 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden. His succession to that role was announced on several of their websites on June 16, 2011. On the same day, al-Qaeda renewed its position that Israel was an illegitimate state and that it would not accept any compromise on Palestine. The delayed announcement led some analysts to speculate that

Ayman al-Zawahiri

there was quarreling within al-Qaeda: "It doesn't suggest a vast reservoir of accumulated goodwill for him," said one celebrity journalist on CNN. Both U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen maintain that the delay didn't signal any kind of dispute within al-Qaeda, and Mullen reiterated U.S. death threats toward al-Zawahiri. According to US officials within the Obama administration and Robert Gates, al-Zawahiri would find the leadership difficult as, while intelligent, he lacks combat experience and the charisma of Osama bin Laden.</s><s>Militant activity.:Activities in Iran. Al-Zawahiri allegedly worked with the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of al-Qaeda. Author Lawrence Wright reports that EIJ operative Ali Mohammed "told the FBI that al-Jihad had planned a coup in Egypt in 1990." Al-Zawahiri had studied the 1979 Islamist Islamic Revolution and "sought training from the Iranians" as to how to duplicate their feat against the Egyptian government. In public, al-Zawahiri harshly denounced the Iranian government. In December 2007, he said, "We discovered Iran collaborating with America in its invasions of Afghanistan

Ayman al-Zawahiri

and Iraq." In the same video messages, he moreover chides Iran for "repeating the ridiculous joke that says that al-Qaida and the Taliban are agents of America," before playing a video clip in which Ayatollah Rafsanjani says, "In Afghanistan, they were present in Afghanistan, because of Al-Qa'ida; and the Taliban, who created the Taliban? America is the one who created the Taliban, and America's friends in the region are the ones who financed and armed the Taliban." Al-Zawahiri's criticism of Iran's government continues when he states, Al-Zawahiri said that "Iran of the Islamic Nation." In April 2008, al-Zawahiri blamed Iranian state media and Al-Manar for perpetuating the "lie" that "there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no-one else did in history" in order to discredit the Al Qaeda network. Al-Zawahiri was referring to some 9/11 conspiracy theories that claim that Al Qaeda was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks. On the seventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, al-Zawahiri released a 90-minute tape in which he "the guardian

Ayman al-Zawahiri

of Muslims in Tehran" for recognizing "the two governments" in Iraq and Afghanistan.</s><s>Militant activity.:Activities in Russia. At some point in 1994, al-Zawahiri was said to have "become " but is thought to have traveled widely to "Switzerland and Sarajevo". A fake passport he was using shows that he traveled to Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. On December 1, 1996, Ahmad Salama Mabruk and Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi – both carrying false passports – accompanied al-Zawahiri on a trip to Chechnya, where they hoped to re-establish the faltering Jihad. Their leader was traveling under the pseudonym "Abdullah Imam Mohammed Amin", and trading on his medical credentials for legitimacy. The group switched vehicles three times, but were arrested within hours of entering Russian territory and spent five months in a Makhachkala prison awaiting trial. The trio pleaded innocence, maintaining their disguise while other al-Jihad members from "Bavari-C" sent the Russian authorities pleas for leniency for their "merchant" colleagues who had been wrongly arrested. Russian Member of Parliament Nadyr Khachiliev echoed the pleas for

Ayman al-Zawahiri

their speedy release as al-Jihad members Ibrahim Eidarous and Tharwat Salah Shehata traveled to Dagestan to plead for their release. Shehata received permission to visit the prisoners. He is believed to have smuggled $3000 to them, which was later confiscated, and to have given them a letter which the Russians didn't bother to translate. In April 1997 the trio were sentenced to six months, were subsequently released a month later, and absconded without paying their court-appointed attorney Abulkhalik Abdusalamov his $1,800 legal fee, citing "poverty". Shehata was sent on to Chechnya where he met with Ibn Khattab. There have been doubts as to the true nature of al-Zawahiri's encounter with the Russians in 1996. Jamestown Foundation scholar Evgenii Novikov has argued that it seems unlikely that the Russians would not have been able to determine who he was, given Russia's well-trained Arabists and the suspicious acts of Muslims crossing borders illegally with multiple Arabic false identities and encrypted documents. Assassinated former FSB secret service officer Alexander Litvinenko alleged, among other things, that during this time al-Zawahiri was trained

Ayman al-Zawahiri

by the FSB and that he was not the only link between al-Qaeda and the FSB. Former KGB officer, Voice of America commentator and writer Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy supported Litvinenko's claim. He said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia, who was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, during 1996–1997."</s><s>Militant activity.:Activities in Egypt. Al-Zawahiri was convicted of dealing in weapons and received a three-year sentence, which he completed in 1984, shortly after his conviction. Al-Zawahiri learned of a "Nonviolence Initiative" organized in Egypt to end the terror campaign that had killed hundreds and resulting government crackdown that had imprisoned thousands. Al-Zawahiri angrily opposed this "surrender" in letters to the London newspaper "Al-Sharq al-Awsat". Together with members of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, he helped organize a massive attack on tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut to sabotage the initiative by provoking the government into repression. The attack by six men dressed in police uniforms succeeded in machine-

Ayman al-Zawahiri

gunning and hacking to death 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians, including "a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons," and devastated the Egyptian tourist industry for a number of years. Nonetheless, the Egyptian reaction was not what al-Zawahiri had hoped for. The attack so stunned and angered Egyptian society that Islamists denied responsibility. Al-Zawahiri blamed the police for the killing, but also held the tourists responsible for their own deaths for coming to Egypt, Al-Zawahiri was sentenced to death "in absentia" in 1999 by an Egyptian military tribunal.</s><s>Militant activity.:Activities and whereabouts after the September 11 attacks. In December 2001, al-Zawahiri published a book entitled "Fursan  Rayat al Nabi" ("Knights Under the Prophet's Banner") which outlined ideologies of al-Qaeda. English translations of this book were published; excerpts are available online. Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri's whereabouts were unknown, but he was generally thought to be in tribal Pakistan. Although he released videos of himself frequently, al-Zawahiri did not appear alongside bin Laden in any of them after

Ayman al-Zawahiri

2003. In 2003, it was rumored that he was under arrest in Iran, although this was later discovered to be false. On January 13, 2006, the Central Intelligence Agency, aided by Pakistan's ISI, launched an airstrike on Damadola, a Pakistani village near the Afghan border where they believed al-Zawahiri was located. The airstrike was supposed to kill al-Zawahiri and this was reported in international news over the following days. Many victims of the airstrike were buried unidentified. Anonymous U.S. government officials claimed that some terrorists were killed and the Bajaur tribal area government confirmed that at least four terrorists were among the dead. Anti-American protests broke out around the country and the Pakistani government condemned the U.S. attack and the loss of innocent life. On August 1, 2008, CBS News reported that it had obtained a copy of an intercepted letter dated July 29, 2008, from unnamed sources in Pakistan, which urgently requested a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. The letter indicated that al-Zawahiri was critically injured in a US missile strike at Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan on July 28 that also reportedly killed al Qaeda explosives expert Abu Khabab al-Masri.

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Taliban Mehsud spokesman Maulvi Umar told the Associated Press on August 2, 2008, that the report of al-Zawahiri's injury was false. In early September 2008, Pakistan Army claimed that they "almost" captured al-Zawahiri after getting information that he and his wife were in the Mohmand Agency, in northwest Pakistan. After raiding the area, officials didn't find him. In two videos posted on Jihadist websites in 2012, al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to "capture" foreign citizens to leverage the release of Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In the videos, al-Zawahiri cited to the successful kidnapping of Jewish American Warren Weinstein in 2011 as precedent for further kidnappings. Al-Zawahiri also called for the institution of Sharia law in Egypt and questioned the views of then-President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi. In June 2013, al-Zawahiri arbitrated against the merger of the Islamic State of Iraq with the Syrian-based Jabhat al-Nusra into Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as was declared in April by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Abu Mohammad al-Julani, leader of al-Nusra Front,

Ayman al-Zawahiri

affirmed the group's allegiance to al-Qaeda and al-Zawahiri. In September 2015, al-Zawahiri urged Islamic State (ISIL) to stop fighting al-Nusra Front, the official al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, and to unite with all other jihadists against the supposed alliance between America, Russia, Europe, Shiites and Iran, and Bashar al-Assad's Alawite regime. Ayman al-Zawahiri released a statement supporting jihad in Xinjiang against Chinese, jihad in the Caucasus against the Russians and naming Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as battlegrounds. al-Zawahiri endorsed "jihad to liberate every span of land of the Muslims that has been usurped and violated, from Kashgar to Andalusia, and from the Caucasus to Somalia and Central Africa". Uyghurs inhabit Kashgar, the city which was mentioned by al-Zawahiri. In another statement he said, "My mujahideen brothers in all places and of all groups... we face aggression from America, Europe, and Russia... so it's up to us to stand together as one from East Turkestan to Morocco". In 2015, the Turkistan Islamic Party (East Turkistan Islamic

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Movement) released an image showing Al Qaeda leaders Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden meeting with Hasan Mahsum. The Uyghurs East Turkestan independence movement was endorsed in the serial "Islamic Spring"'s 9th release by Al-Zawahiri. Al-Zawahiri confirmed that the Afghanistan war after 9/11 included the participation of Uyghurs and that the jihadists like Zarwaqi, Bin Ladin and the Uyghur Hasan Mahsum were provided with refuge together in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Uyghur fighters were praised by al-Zawahiri, before a Turkistan Islamic Party performed a Bishkek bombing on August 30. Uighur jihadists were hailed by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Doğu Türkistan Bülteni Haber Ajansı reported that the Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party was praised by Abu Qatada along with Abdul Razzaq al Mahdi, Maqdisi, Muhaysini and al-Zawahiri. Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Abu Qatada were referenced by Muhaysini. Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri were

Ayman al-Zawahiri

by Muhaysini. The Rewards for Justice Program of the U.S. Department of State offered a reward of up to US$25 million for information about al-Zawahiri's location. On July 31, 2022, al-Zawahiri was killed in a US strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. He had been rumoured to be in Pakistan's tribal area or inside Afghanistan. His death is considered to be the biggest hit to the terrorist group since Osama Bin Laden was killed in 2011. Others described his death as "anticlimactic to Al Qaeda's demise", stating "[h]is moves as leader of the shrinking group were watched more by analysts than by jihadists" at the time of his death.</s><s>Views.</s><s>Views.:Islamism. As a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, al-Zawahiri conceived of Islamism in Egypt as a revolutionary movement of heroic fighters who the masses would join in the wake of their victories. The movement was mostly a failure, including its crushing defeat and suppression by the Egyptian government following the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The popular uprising envisioned by al-Zawahiri never came to be, and some Islamist leaders agreed to cease-fire terms with the government.

Ayman al-Zawahiri

After these events, al-Zawahiri joined Al-Qaeda, which had aims that were international in scope and was focused on the conflict with the United States rather than the ongoing localized conflict with the secular regime in Egypt.</s><s>Views.:Loyalty and enmity. In a lengthy treatise titled "Loyalty and Enmity", al-Zawahiri said that Muslims must at all times be loyal to Islam and to one another, while hating or avoiding everything and everyone outside of Islam.</s><s>Views.:Female combatants. Al-Zawahiri said in an April 2008 interview that the group does not have women combatants and that a woman's role is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaeda fighters. This resulted in a debate regarding the role of mujahid women like Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi.</s><s>Views.:Iranians. In 2008 he claimed that "Persians" are the enemy of Arabs and that Iran cooperated with the U.S. during the occupation of Iraq.</s><s>Promotional activities. Al-Zawahiri placed supreme importance on winning public support, and castigated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in this regard

Ayman al-Zawahiri

: "In the absence of this popular support, the Islamic mujahid movement would be crushed in the shadows."</s><s>Promotional activities.:Video and audio messages.</s><s>Promotional activities.:Video and audio messages.:2000s. - August 4, 2005: al-Zawahiri issues a televised statement blaming former British prime minister Tony Blair and his government's foreign policy for the July 2005 London bombings. - September 1, 2005: al-Jazeera broadcasts a video message from Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of bombers of the London Underground. His message is followed by another message from al-Zawahiri, blaming again Tony Blair for the 7/7 bombings. - September 19, 2005: al-Zawahiri claims responsibility for the London bombings and dismisses U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. - April 3, 2008: al-Zawahiri said that al-Qaeda doesn't kill innocents and that its [former] leader Osama bin Laden is healthy. The questions asked his views about Egypt and Iraq, as well as Hamas. - April 22, 2008: An audio interview in which, among other subjects, al-Zawahiri attacks the Shiite Iran and Hezbollah for blaming the 9/11 attacks on Israel, and

Ayman al-Zawahiri

thus discrediting al-Qaeda. - On the 7th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, al-Zawahiri released a 90-minute tape, in which he blasted "the guardian of Muslims in Tehran" for "the two hireling governments" in Iraq and Afghanistan. - January 7, 2009: An audio message released, where al-Zawahiri vows revenge for Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza and calls the Jewish state's actions against Hamas militants "a gift" from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for the recent uprising conflict in Gaza. - October 4, 2009: "The New York Times" reported that al-Zawahiri had asserted that Libya had tortured Ibn Al Sheikh Al Libi to death.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/10/04/world/international-us-qaeda-libya-militant.html - December 14, 2009: In an audio recording released on December 14, 2009, al-Zawahiri renewed calls to establish an Islamic state in Israel and urged his followers to "seek jihad against Jews" and their supporters. He also called for jihad against America and the West

Ayman al-Zawahiri

, and labeled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia as the "brothers of Satan".</s><s>Promotional activities.:Video and audio messages.:2010s. - June 8, 2011: al-Zawahiri released his first video since the killing of Osama bin Laden, praising bin Laden and warning the U.S. of reprisal attacks, but without staking a claim on the leadership of al-Qaeda. - September 3, 2014: In a 55-minute-long video, al-Zawahiri announced the formation of a new wing called al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), which would wage jihad "to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty, and to revive its Caliphate." Reaction amongst Muslims in India to the formation of the new wing was one of fury. - March 2018: al-Zawahiri posts a video entitled "America is the First Enemy of the Muslims", where he defends the Muslim Brotherhood and claims that the US is "working with Saudi Arabia to train imams and rewrite religious textbooks". This is his sixth video in 2018. He refers to Rex Tillerson's firing as US Secretary of State in the Trump administration

Ayman al-Zawahiri

. - September 11, 2019: al-Zawahiri posts a 9/11 18th anniversary propaganda video entitled "And They Shall Continue to Fight You" through al-Qaeda media outlet As Sahab. Al-Zawahiri condemns Islamic scholars who condemned al-Qaeda for the 9/11 attacks and continues to call for jihad regarding Israel and Palestine. Clips of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were inter-spaced in the video.</s><s>Promotional activities.:Video and audio messages.:2020s. - In September 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, after a month of Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, a video of al-Zawahiri surfaced, but he did not mention the Taliban takeover. - In April 2022, al-Zawahiri's video was released on the hijab controversy in the Indian state of Karnataka, where he expressed support for a student who wore a burqa to her college.</s><s>Promotional activities.:Online Q&A. In mid-December 2007, al-Zawahiri's spokespeople announced plans for an "open interview" on a handful of Islamic Web sites. The administrators of four known jihadist web sites have been authorized to collect and forward questions, "unedited

Ayman al-Zawahiri

", they pledge, and "regardless of whether they are in support of or are against" al-Qaeda, which would be forwarded to al-Zawahiri on January 16.{{cite web }} al-Zawahiri responded to the questions later in 2008; among the things he said were that al-Qaeda didn't kill innocents, and that al-Qaeda would move to target Israel "after expelling the occupier from Iraq".</s><s>Promotional activities.:Publications. - "Fursan  Rayat al Nabi" ("Knights Under the Prophet's Banner") - Co-author of Fatāwa of Osama bin Laden (1998) - World Islamic Front Statement (1998)</s><s>Death. Al-Zawahiri was killed on July 31, 2022, shortly after 6:00 AM local time in an early-morning drone strike conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the upscale Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul, reportedly in a house owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban government. In a statement to reporters, a senior administration official said "over the weekend, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al Qaeda target in Afghanistan. The

Ayman al-Zawahiri

operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties." The United States Department of Defense denied responsibility for the strike, while the United States Central Command declined to comment. On August 1, delayed by two days to allow time for proper verification of the operation's success, President Joe Biden announced at the White House that the U.S. Intelligence Community had located al-Zawahiri as he moved into downtown Kabul in early 2022 and that President Biden had authorized the operation a week prior. Biden also stated that the operation did not harm any members of al-Zawahiri's family or other civilians. According to U.S. government sources, Al-Zawahiri was killed by Hellfire missiles fired from a Reaper drone. Press sources have speculated that the missiles may have been R9X Hellfire missiles, which are designed to kill by impact and with blades instead of explosion to avoid unintended casualties. Al Qaeda in December 2022 released a video it stated was narrated by al-Zawahiri. The video was undated and did not mention when the recording of the audio was done. In February 2023, the United Nations reported that many member countries believed Saif al-Adel to be the de-facto successor of al-Zawahiri

Ayman al-Zawahiri

, but al-Qaeda had not formally named him to probably avoid scrutiny against the Taliban for giving shelter to the latter and due to al-Adel living in Iran.</s><s>See also. - FBI Most Wanted Terrorists - List of fugitives from justice who disappeared - Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif - Videos and audio recordings of Osama bin Laden</s><s>Notes and references.</s><s>Notes and references.:Works cited. - -</s><s>Notes and references.:General references. - al-Zawahiri, Ayman, "L'absolution", Milelli, Villepreux, (French translation of Al-Zawahiri's latest book). - Ibrahim, Raymond (2007), "The Al Qaeda Reader", Broadway Books,. - Kepel, Gilles; & Jean-Pierre Milelli (2010), "Al Qaeda in Its Own Words", Harvard University Press, Cambridge & London,. - Mansfield, Laura (2006), "His Own Words: A Translation of the Writings of Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri", Lulu Pub.</s>


Prompt: Question: Tell me a bio of Abraham Ancer.

Abraham Ancer

<s>Abraham Ancer Abraham Ancer (; born 27 February 1991) is a Mexican-American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and is currently playing on the LIV Golf tour. He won the 2018 Emirates Australian Open and the 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational for his first PGA Tour career victory.</s><s>Amateur career. Ancer was born in McAllen, Texas; raised partially in Reynosa, Mexico; and has dual American and Mexican citizenship. He attended Sharyland High School in Mission, Texas. He played college golf at Odessa College and the University of Oklahoma, from which he graduated in 2013 with a degree in General Studies. During his one year at Odessa, Ancer was a first-team All-American and finished in a tie for second in the Junior College National Golf Championship. At Oklahoma, he saw his most success during his first year, winning twice while having the sixth-lowest scoring average in Oklahoma history of 72.03. During his entire career, he ended up second in all-time scoring average.</s><s>Professional career. Ancer turned professional in 2013. In December 2014, he tied for 35th place at the Web.com Tour Qualifying School final stage.

Abraham Ancer

He played on the Web.com Tour in 2015, where he finished runner-up at the Brasil Champions in March and won the Nova Scotia Open in July. He finished 11th in the regular season money list, which earned him a PGA Tour card for the 2016 season. In his rookie year, Ancer didn't perform consistently, with a best finish of T-18 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. He finished 190th in FedEx Cup points and couldn't maintain his card for the 2017 season, which sent him back to the Web.com Tour. During the 2017 Web.com Tour, Ancer carded five top-5 finishes, including three runner-up finishes, which allowed him to secure his PGA Tour card for the 2018 season by finishing in 3rd place on the regular season money list. During the 2018 season, Ancer finished 9th at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, 8th at the Houston Open, 4th at the Quicken Loans National, 5th at the RBC Canadian Open, and 7th at the Dell Technologies Championship. The Quicken Loans National was part of the Open Qualifying Series and his high finish gave him an entry to the 2018 Open Championship, his first major championship, where he had

Abraham Ancer

rounds of 71 and 78 and missed the cut. In the PGA Tour season Ancer earned US$1.7 million and finished 60th in the FedEx Cup. Ancer had a good start to the 2018–19 season with top-5 finishes in the CIMB Classic and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, results that lifted him into the world top-100 for the first time. He followed this up with a 5-stroke victory in the Australian Open, a week before representing Mexico in the World Cup of Golf. His Australian Open win gave him an entry to the 2019 Open Championship. Ancer finished second in the Northern Trust in August 2019 and ended the year by tying for 21st at the Tour Championship. This earned him $478,000 in FedEx Cup bonus money. Ancer's strong play in 2019 qualified him for the 2019 Presidents Cup International team. The event was held at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in December 2019. The U.S. team defeated the Internationals 16–14. Ancer went 3–1–1. His lone loss came in the Sunday singles, 3 & 2 against U.S. playing-captain Tiger Woods. Ancer had told media prior to the event that he wanted to play Woods in singles

Abraham Ancer

. Woods said afterward "Abe wanted it, he got it." At the 2020 RBC Heritage, Ancer finished runner-up shooting −21, earning him $773,900. Ancer led the tournament in Driving Accuracy (82.1%) and Greens In Regulation (90.3%). In May 2021, Ancer finished second at the Wells Fargo Championship. One shot behind Rory McIlroy. In late July/early August he played in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, finishing tied for 14th place with Norway's Viktor Hovland after scoring 12-under-par for the four rounds of the Men's Tournament. The following week he obtained his first career victory in a PGA Tour event after winning the 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational after two sudden-death playoff holes against Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns. With the win, Ancer became the fourth Mexican player to win on the PGA Tour and the first to win on the European Tour. Ancer joined LIV Golf in June 2022 following the U.S Open, and was subsequently suspended from the PGA Tour. Ancer has yet to win individually on the tour, but did win the team trophy in Bangkok. In February 2023, Ancer won the P

Abraham Ancer

IF Saudi International on the Asian Tour. He shot a final-round 68 to win by two shots ahead of Cameron Young and claim a wire-to-wire victory.</s><s>Amateur wins. - 2009 Odessa College Invitational - 2010 Omega Chemical/Midland College, Texas Junior College Championship, NJCAA District 2 Championship - 2011 Desert Shootout, NCAA East-VA Tech Regional Source:</s><s>Professional wins (4).</s><s>Professional wins (4).:PGA Tour wins (1). PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)</s><s>Professional wins (4).:European Tour wins (1). European Tour playoff record (1–0)</s><s>Professional wins (4).:Web.com Tour wins (1). Web.com Tour playoff record (1–1)</s><s>Results in major championships. "Results not in chronological order before 2019 and in 2020." CUT = missed the half-way cutbr "T" = tiedbr NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic</s><s>Results in major championships.:Summary. - Most consecutive cuts made – 6 (2020 PGA – 2021 PGA) - Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)</s><s>Results in The Players

Abraham Ancer

Championship. "T" indicates a tie for a placebr C = Cancelled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic</s><s>World Golf Championships.</s><s>World Golf Championships.:Results timeline. Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemicbr QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match playbr NT = no tournamentbr "T" = tiedbr Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022.</s><s>Team appearances. - World Cup (representing Mexico): 2018 - Presidents Cup (representing the International team): 2019</s><s>See also. - 2015 Web.com Tour Finals graduates - 2017 Web.com Tour Finals graduates</s>


Prompt: Question: Tell me a bio of Vicente Guerrero.

Vicente Guerrero

<s>Vicente Guerrero Vicente Ramón Guerrero (; baptized August 10, 1782 – February 14, 1831) was a Mexican soldier and statesman who become the nation's second president. He was one of the leading generals who fought against Spain during the Mexican War of Independence. During his presidency, he abolished slavery in Mexico. Guerrero was deposed in a rebellion by his Vice-President Anastasio Bustamante.</s><s>Early life. Vicente Guerrero was born in Tixtla, a town 100 kilometers inland from the port of Acapulco, in the Sierra Madre del Sur; his parents were María Guadalupe Rodríguez Saldaña, and Juan Pedro Guerrero. His father's family included landlords, wealthy farmers, and traders with broad business connections in the south, members of the Spanish militia, and gun and cannon makers. In his youth, he worked for his father's freight business that used mules for transport, a prosperous business during this time. His travels took him to different parts of Mexico where he heard of the idea of independence. There is controversy regarding Guerrero's ethnic origin, with some authors describing him as indigenous, mestizo, or African. However, no portraits of him were made during

Vicente Guerrero

his lifetime and those made posthumously may not be reliable. Fellow insurgent José María Morelos described him as a "young man with bronzed or tanned skin ("broncineo" in Spanish), tall and strong (N.B. "forbid", strapping, muscular), aquiline nose, bright and light-colored eyes and big sideburns". Vicente's father, Juan Pedro, supported Spanish rule, whereas his uncle, Diego Guerrero, had an important position in the Spanish militia. As an adult, Vicente was opposed to the Spanish colonial government. When his father asked him for his sword in order to present it to the viceroy of New Spain as a sign of goodwill, Vicente refused, saying, "The will of my father is for me sacred, but my Fatherland is first." ""Mi patria es primero"" is now the motto of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, named in honor of the revolutionary. Guerrero enlisted in José María Morelos's insurgent army of the south in December 1810. He was married to María Guadalupe Hernández; their daughter María Dolores Guerrero Hernández married Mariano Riva Palacio, who was the defense

Vicente Guerrero

lawyer of Maximilian I of Mexico in Querétaro, and was the mother of late nineteenth-century intellectual [Vicente Riva Palacio].</s><s>Insurgent. In 1810, Guerrero joined in the early revolt against Spain, first fighting in the forces of secular priest José María Morelos. When the Mexican War of Independence began, Guerrero was working as a gunsmith in Tixtla. He joined the rebellion in November 1810 and enlisted in a division that independence leader Morelos had organized to fight in southern Mexico. Guerrero distinguished himself in the Battle of Izúcar, in February 1812, and had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel when Oaxaca was claimed by rebels in November 1812. Initial victories by Morelos's forces faltered, and Morelos himself was captured and executed in December 1815. Guerrero joined forces with Guadalupe Victoria and Isidoro Montes de Oca, taking the position of "Commander in Chief" of the rebel troops. In 1816, the royal government under Viceroy Apodaca sought to end the insurgency, offering amnesty. Guerrero's father carried an appeal for his son to surrender, but Guerrero refused. He remained the only major rebel leader still at large and kept

Vicente Guerrero

the rebellion going through an extensive campaign of guerrilla warfare. He won victories at Ajuchitán, Santa Fe, Tetela del Río, Huetamo, Tlalchapa, and Cuautlotitlán, regions of southern Mexico that were very familiar to him. Hoping to extinguish the rebellion, the royal government sent Agustín de Iturbide against Guerrero's forces. Guerrero was victorious against Iturbide, who realized that there was a military stalemate. Guerrero appealed to Iturbide to abandon his royalist loyalty and to join the fight for independence. Events in Spain had changed in 1820, with Spanish liberals ousting Ferdinand VII and imposing the liberal constitution of 1812 that the king had repudiated. Conservatives in Mexico, including the Catholic hierarchy, began to conclude that continued allegiance to Spain would undermine their position and opted for independence to maintain their control. Guerrero's appeal to join the forces for independence was successful. Guerrero and Iturbide allied under the Plan de Iguala and their forces merged as the Army of the Three Guarantees. The Plan of Iguala proclaimed independence, called for a constitutional monarchy and the continued place of the Roman Catholic Church, and abolished the formal "casta" system of racial classification. Clause

Vicente Guerrero

12 was incorporated into the plan: "All inhabitants... without distinction of their European, African or Indian origins are citizens... with full freedom to pursue their livelihoods according to their merits and virtues." The Army of the Three Guarantees marched triumphantly into Mexico City on September 27, 1821. Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico by Congress. In January 1823, Guerrero, along with Nicolás Bravo, rebelled against Iturbide, returning to southern Mexico to raise rebellion, according to some assessments because their careers had been blocked by the emperor. Their stated objectives were to restore the Constituent Congress. Guerrero and Bravo were defeated by Iturbide's forces at Almolongo, now in the State of Guerrero, less than a month later. When Iturbide's imperial government collapsed in 1823, Guerrero was named one of Constituent Congress's ruling triumvirate.</s><s>1828 presidential election. Guerrero was a liberal by conviction, and active in the York Rite Masons, established in Mexico after independence by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the U.S. diplomatic representative to the newly independent Mexico. The Scottish Rite Masons had been established before independence. Following independence the "Yorkinos" appealed to a broad range of Mexico's populace

Vicente Guerrero

, as opposed to the Scottish Rite Masons, who were a bulwark of conservatism, and in the absence of established political parties, rival groups of Masons functioned as political organizations. Guerrero had a large following among urban "Yorkinos", who were mobilized during the 1828 election campaign and afterwards, in the ouster of the president-elect, Manuel Gómez Pedraza. In 1828, the four-year term of the first president of the republic, Guadalupe Victoria, came to an end. Unlike the first presidential election and the president serving his full term, the election of 1828 was highly partisan. Guerrero's supporters included federalist liberals, members of the radical wing of the York Rite Freemasons. General Gómez Pedraza won the September 1828 election to succeed Guadalupe Victoria, with Guerrero coming in second and Anastasio Bustamante, third through indirect election of Mexico's state legislatures. Gómez Pedraza was the candidate of the "Impartials", composed of Yorkinos concerned about the radicalism of Guerrero and Scottish Rite Masons ("Escocés"), who sought a new political party. Among those who were Impartials were distinguished federalist Yorkinos Valentín Góme

Vicente Guerrero

z Farías and Miguel Ramos Arizpe. The U.S. diplomatic representative in Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett was enthusiastic about Guerrero's candidacy, writing Guerrero himself did not leave an abundant written record, but some of his speeches survive. Two weeks after the September 1 election, Antonio López de Santa Anna rose in rebellion in support of Guerrero. As governor of the strategic state of Veracruz and former general in the war of independence, Santa Anna was a powerful figure in the early republic, but he was unable to persuade the state legislature to support Guerrero in the indirect elections. Santa Anna resigned the governorship and led 800 troops loyal to him in capturing the fortress of Perote, near Xalapa. He issued a political plan there calling for the nullification of Gómez Pedraza's election and the declaration of Guerrero as president. In November 1828 in Mexico City, Guerrero supporters took control of the Accordada, a former prison transformed into an armory, and days of fighting occurred in the capital. President-elect Gómez Pedraza had not yet taken office and at this juncture he resigned and soon went into exile in England. With the resignation of the president-elect and the ineffective rule of the

Vicente Guerrero

sitting president, civil order dissolved. On 4 December 1828, a riot broke out in the Zócalo and the Parián market, where luxury goods were sold, was looted. Order was restored within a day, but elites in the capital were alarmed at the violence of the popular classes and the huge property losses. With the resignation of Gómez Pedraza, and Guerreros's cause backed by Santa Anna's forces and the powerful liberal politician Lorenzo de Zavala, Guerrero became president. Guerrero took office as president, with Bustamante, a conservative, becoming vice president. One scholar sums up Guerrero's situation, "Guerrero owed the presidency to a mutiny and a failure of will on the part of [President] Guadalupe Victoria...Guerrero was to rule as president with only a thin layer of support."</s><s>Presidency. Liberal folk hero of the independence insurgency Guerrero became president on 1 April 1829, with conservative Anastasio Bustamante as his vice president. For some of Guerrero's supporters, a visibly mixed-race man from Mexico's periphery becoming president of Mexico was a step toward what one 1829 pamphleteer called "the reconquest of this land by its legitimate owners" and called

Vicente Guerrero

Guerrero "that immortal hero, favorite son of Nezahualcoyotzin", the famous ruler of prehispanic Texcoco. Some creole elites (American-born whites of Spanish heritage) were alarmed by Guerrero as president, a group that liberal Lorenzo de Zavala disparagingly called "the new Mexican aristocracy". Guerrero set about creating a cabinet of liberals, but his government already encountered serious problems, including its very legitimacy, since president-elect Gómez Pedraza had resigned under pressure. Some traditional federalists leaders, who might have supported Guerrero, did not do so because of the electoral irregularities. The national treasury was empty and future revenues were already liened. Spain continued to deny Mexico's independence and threatened reconquest. A key achievement of his presidency was the total abolition of slavery in Mexico. The slave trade had already been banned by the Spanish authorities in 1818, a ban that had been reconfirmed by the nascent Mexican government in 1824. A few Mexican states had also already abolished the practice of slavery, but it was not until September 16, 1829 that total abolition across the nation was proclaimed by the Guerrero administration. Slavery at this point barely existed throughout Mexico, and only the state of Coahuila y

Vicente Guerrero

Tejas was significantly affected, due to the immigration of slaveowners from the United States. Guerrero called for public schools, land title reforms, industry and trade development, and other programs of a liberal nature. As president, Guerrero championed the causes of the racially oppressed and economically oppressed. Initially, the leader of the colonization of Texas, Stephen F. Austin, proved enthusiastic towards the Mexican government. During Guerrero's presidency, the Spanish tried to reconquer Mexico but were defeated at the Battle of Tampico.</s><s>Fall and execution. Guerrero was deposed in a rebellion under Vice-President Anastasio Bustamante that began on 4 December 1829. Guerrero left the capital to fight in the south, but was deposed by the Mexico City garrison in his absence on 17 December 1829. Guerrero had returned to the region of southern Mexico where he had fought during the war of independence. Open warfare between Guerrero and his opponent in the region Nicolás Bravo was fierce. Bravo had been a royalist officer and Guerrero was an insurgent hero. Bravo controlled the highlands of the region, including the town of Guerrero's birth, Tixtla. Guerrero had strength in the hot coastal regions of the Costa Grande and Tierra Caliente, with mixed race populations that had been

Vicente Guerrero

mobilized during the insurgency for independence. Bravo's area had a mixed population, but politically was dominated by whites. The conflict in the south occurred for all of 1830, as conservatives consolidated power in Mexico City. The war in the south might have continued even longer, but ended in what one historian has called "the most shocking single event in the history of the first republic: the capture of Guerrero in Acapulco through an act of betrayal and his execution a month later." Guerrero controlled Mexico's principal Pacific coast port of Acapulco. An Italian merchant ship captain, Francisco Picaluga, approached the conservative government in Mexico City with a proposal to lure Guerrero onto his ship and take him prisoner for the price of 50,000 pesos, a fortune at the time. Picaluga invited Guerrero on board for a meal on 14 January 1831. Guerrero and a few aides were taken captive and Picaluga sailed to the port of Huatulco, where Guerrero was turned over to federal troops. Guerrero was taken to Oaxaca City and summarily tried by a court-martial. His capture was welcomed by conservatives and some state legislatures, but the legislatures of Zacatecas and Jalisco tried to prevent Guerrero's execution. The government's 50,000

Vicente Guerrero

peso payment to Picaluga was exposed in the liberal press. Despite pleas for his life, Guerrero was executed by firing squad in Cuilapam on 14 February 1831. His death did mark the dissolution of the rebellion in southern Mexico, but those politicians involved in his execution paid a lasting price to their reputations. Many Mexicans saw Guerrero as the "martyr of Cuilapam" and his execution was deemed by the liberal newspaper "El Federalista Mexicano" "judicial murder". The two conservative cabinet members considered most culpable for Guerrero's execution, Lucas Alamán and Secretary of War José Antonio Facio, "spent the rest of their lives defending themselves from the charge that they were responsible for the ultimate betrayal in the history of the first republic, that is, that they had arranged not just for the service of Picaluga's ship but specifically for his capture of Guerrero." Historian Jan Bazant speculates as to why Guerrero was executed rather than sent into exile, as Iturbide had been, as well as Antonio López de Santa Anna, and long-time dictator of late-nineteenth century Mexico, Porfirio Díaz. "The clue is provided by Zavala who, writing several years later

Vicente Guerrero

, noted that Guerrero was of mixed blood and that the opposition to his presidency came from the great landowners, generals, clerics and Spaniards resident in Mexico...Guerrero's execution was perhaps a warning to men considered as socially and ethnically inferior not to dare to dream of becoming president." Honors were conferred on surviving members of Guerrero's family, and a pension was paid to his widow. In 1842, Vicente Guerrero's remains were exhumed and returned to Mexico City for reinterment. He is known for his political discourse promoting equal civil rights for all Mexican citizens. He has been described as the "greatest man of color" to ever live.</s><s>Legacy. Guerrero is a Mexican national hero. The state of Guerrero is named in his honour. Several towns in Mexico are named in honor of this famous general, including Vicente Guerrero in Durango, Vicente Guerrero in Baja California and the Colonia Guerrero.</s><s>See also. - Filipino immigration to Mexico - Gaspar Yanga - History of Mexico - José María Larios - Liberalism in Mexico - List of presidents of Mexico - List of wars involving Mexico</s><s>Further reading. - Anna, Timothy E. "The Mexican Empire of Iturbide". Lincoln: University

Vicente Guerrero

of Nebraska Press 1990. - Anna, Timothy E. "Forging Mexico, 1821–1835". Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1998. - Arrom, Silvia. "Popular Politics in Mexico City: The Parián Riot, 1828". Hispanic American Historical Review 68, no. 2 (May 1988): 245–68. - Avila, Alfredo. "La presidencia de Vicente Guerrero", in Will Fowler, ed., "Gobernantes mexicanos", Mexico City, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2008, t. I, p. 27–49.. - Bazant, Jan. "From Independence to the Liberal Republic, 1821–67" in "Mexico since Independence", edited by Leslie Bethelll. New York: Cambridge University Press 1991. - González Pedrero, Enrique. "País de un solo hombre: el México de Santa Anna. Volumen II" : La sociedad de fuego cruzado 1829–1836 : Fondo de Cultura Económica.. - Green, Stanley C. "The Mexican Republic: The First Decade 1823–1832". Pittsburgh:

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University of Pittsburgh Press 1987. - Guardino, Peter F. "Peasants, Politics, and the Formation of Mexico's National State: Guerrero 1800–1857". Stanford: Stanford University Press 1996. - Hale, Charles A. "Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora". New Haven: Yale University Press 1968. - Hamnett, Brian. "Roots of Insurgency: Mexican Regions, 1750–1824". New York: Cambridge University Press 1986. - Harrell, Eugene Wilson. "Vicente Guerrero and the Birth of Modern Mexico, 1821–1831". PhD dissertation, Tulane University 1976. - - Ramírez Fentanes, Luis. "Vicente Guerrero, Presidente de México". Mexico City: Comisión de Historia Militar 1958. - Richmond, Douglas W. "Vicente Guerrero" in "Encyclopedia of Mexico". Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pp. 616–18. - Sims, Harold. "The Expulsion of Mexico's Spaniards, 1821–1836". Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press 1990. - Sprague, William. "Vicente Guerrero, Mexican Liberator: A Study in Patriotism". Chicago

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: Donnelley 1939. - Vincent, Theodore G. "The Legacy of Vicente Guerrero, Mexico's First Black Indian President". University of Florida Press 2001.</s>