The group known as Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades' has been surfacing in recent months.

It has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad in April of 2003. The brigades were named after the training commander of al-Qaeda network and were founded after his death in November of 2001.

Abu Hafs was an Egyptian national, who was nicknamed al-Masri meaning 'the Egyptian' in Arabic. He was a core member of the Islamic Jihad group, which successfully carried out the assassination of the Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat on October 6, 1981.

Abu Hafs joined Osama bin Laden in the early 1980s when the two were fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. He participated in the establishment of al-Qaeda (the base) organization.

As a former Egyptian police officer, Abu Hafs al-Masri took charge of the organization's security. He assumed control of the training camps after the former commander Abu Ubaida al-Banshiri was drowned in
Victoria Lake, Uganda, in 1996.

One of al-Masri's daughters was married to one of bin Laden's sons.

Abu Hafs' name was linked to many deadly attacks in several parts of the world. While al-Qaeda was based in Sudan in 1992-1993, Abu Hafs al-Masri allegedly took part in attacks on US forces operating under the international military force in Somalia (Operation Restore Hope).

In 1997 it was said he and another top bin Laden aide, Dr Ayman al-Dhawahiri, orchestrated the killing of 58 tourists in al-Uxur, Egypt.

In 1999, the FBI announced evidence of Abu Hafs al-Masri' links to the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 250 people were killed. He was then charged with killing US citizens.

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, the US authorities put Abu Hafs al-Masri's name on top of the list of wanted people with a five million dollar reward for information leading to his arrest. He was wanted by several international security and intelligence agencies. An Egyptian court sentenced him to seven years in prison in absentia.

Ten months before Abu Hafs al-Masri's death, Usama bin Laden nominated him as his successor in the event of his death or arrest.
The nomination surprised many of bin Laden's aides and inner circle. It was expected that bin Ladin's eldest son, Muhammad, would succeed his father in leading the organization.

Abd Allah Azzam, the father of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, was quoted by Arab fighters there as having expressed his annoyance at, "bin Laden's
favoritism towards Egyptian Muslim fundamentalists."

On November 16, 2001, a US air raid destroyed a house said to shelter Muhammad Atif (Abu Hafs al-Masri), near Kabul.

News of his death was widely disputed inside and outside Afghanistan, but three days later, the death confirmation came from Pakistan where the Taliban's Ambassador Abd Al-Salam Dhaif said "Abu Hafs al-Masri's died from injuries he suffered after US warplanes bombed his house near Kabul."