Mohammed Ibrahim Makkawi Cairo – Akram Ali Senior Al-Qaeda leader Mohammed Ibrahim Makkawi has been arrested in Cairo, officials have said. Makkawi, also known as Saif Al-Adel (the “sword of justice” in Arabic) was arrested in Cairo International Airport, where he was traveling on an Emirates Airline flight, according to airport officials.
Officials told state media they knew he was intending to hand himself in.
Egyptian state news agency Mena quoted security official saying Al-Adel, 50, was flying to Egypt from Pakistan via Dubai.
The officials said they had received information about his plans to return to Egypt and hand himself over the authorities.
All flights from Asia were monitored as he was expected to come from either Afghanistan or Pakistan, and eventually his name was spotted on the passenger list of an Emirates Airline flight, they added.
Al-Adel has been handed over to the Higher State Security Prosecution for interrogation. Mena did not say where is being held.
Makkawi, a former Egyptian military officer, was dishonourably discharged for joining Jihadist fighters in the 1980s.  
He is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for the bombings of the US embassies in Dar El-Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya in 1998. The FBI offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.
Makkawi who in recent years was believed to be living in Iran under house arrest, was briefly Osama Bin Laden’s security chief, overseeing Al-Qaeda's military operations, and remains a senior member of the organisation.
He was considered a chief rival of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who took over as commander of Al-Qaeda after Nin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs in a raid in 2011.
He was also suspected of training Somali fighters who killed 18 US servicemen in Mogadishu in 1993, and some of the 9/11 hijackers.
According to Egyptian sources, Makkawi has been wanted by the Egyptian authorities since 1987, when he was accused of trying to establish a military wing of the Egyptian Islamist group Al-Jihad, and trying to overthrow the government.