Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born physician and pan-Islamist militant who co-founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 2011, following Osama bin Laden's death, until his own death in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2022. Born into an affluent family in Maadi, a suburb of Cairo, Zawahiri was exposed to Islamist ideologies early in life, joining his first Islamist organization in 1966 under figures like Ismail Tantawi. He trained as a surgeon at Cairo University, graduating in 1974 and obtaining a master's in surgery in 1978, but soon dedicated himself to militancy. Zawahiri became a key figure in Egyptian jihadist groups, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he led from the 1980s and merged with al-Qaeda in 2001. As a close associate and ideological deputy to Osama bin Laden, he served as al-Qaeda's chief ideologue and contributed to planning the September 11, 2001 attacks. Following bin Laden's death, Zawahiri guided al-Qaeda through fragmentation and competition with groups like ISIS, focusing on ideological propagation through writings and videos that emphasized anti-Western jihad and the establishment of a caliphate. He evaded capture for decades while living in hiding primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was involved in numerous plots and attacks worldwide, and faced international condemnation, bounties, and terrorist designations by multiple governments. His legacy remains controversial, viewed by supporters as a scholarly mujahid and by critics as a mastermind of terrorism responsible for thousands of deaths.