Ayman al-Zawahiri comes from a respected family on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, where he practiced as a doctor before adopting a militant ideology. After the killing of Osama bin Laden, he succeeded him in the leadership of Al-Qaeda, as he was the mastermind mind of the organization and the founder of its strategies. Ayman Muhammad Rabie al-Zawahiri was born in the suburb of Maadi near the Egyptian capital Cairo on June 19, 1951, into a distinguished, respected middle-class family, which produced many doctors and religious scholars. Al-Zawahiri's father was a well-known doctor and his grandfather was an imam at Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, which represents the highest religious authority among Sunni Muslims. Al-Zawahiri's involvement in the extremist Islamic community in Egypt comes at an early age, as he published several books on Islamic fundamentalism, which for many was a symbol of the extremist Islamic movement. The first time the world heard about Ayman al-Zawahiri was when he stood in a cage in the courtroom after the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. At that time, al-Zawahiri raised his voice alongside the other defendants who were angered by the peace agreement that Sadat concluded with Israel, saying that they "sacrificed and are ready for more sacrifices until the victory of Islam." He was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal possession of a weapon, but was acquitted of the main charges. Al-Zawahiri, who had studied surgery as one of his nicknames "The Doctor", went to Pakistan upon his release where he worked with the Red Crescent treating wounded Islamic mujahideen in Afghanistan who were fighting Soviet forces. During that period, he became acquainted with bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi who joined the Afghan resistance at the time. Al-Zawahiri assumed leadership of Islamic Jihad in Egypt in 1993, and was a prominent figure in the mid-1990s campaign to overthrow the government and establish a purely Islamic state. More than 1,200 Egyptians were killed during that campaign. In 1999, an Egyptian military court in absentia sentenced al-Zawahiri to death while he was living alongside bin Laden, who helped him form al-Qaeda. He was one of five signatories to bin Laden's "fatwa" calling for attacks against Americans. Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at dawn on Sunday in Kabul, after a tracking operation that lasted for years, two missiles fired from a drone led to his death. Regarding the future of al-Qaeda without him, SITE said that the morale of the jihadists was high, with one of them writing, "If Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri dies, there are a thousand other Aymans." For his part, Colin Clark, a researcher at the Soufan Center, believes that the organization is "at a crossroads." "Despite al-Zawahiri's leadership, which reduced al-Qaeda's losses during the rebuilding phase, the group still faces serious challenges as it moves forward. Among these challenges, who will lead al-Qaeda after al-Zawahiri's departure," he said. FRANCE 24/AFP/Reuters