Mohammed Atef (Arabic: محمد عاطف ) (also transliterated as Muhammad Atef, Muhammed Atef, Muhammad 'Āṭif and several other ways) (1944-2001) was the alleged military chief of the international terrorist organization al-Qaida.
Among his known aliases are Abu Hafez, Abu Hafs, Abu Hafs al-Masri, Abu Hafs El-Masry El-Khabir, Taysir, Sheikh Taysir Abdullah, and Abu Khadijah.
Atef was a police officer in his native Egypt and a member of the group Egyptian Islamic Jihad before he joined Al-Qaeda.
U.S. prosecutors claim that he instigated the attacks on U.S. forces in Somalia in 1993. However, he first became wanted by the U.S. government after the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, when he was indicted for having directly planned that attack. The FBI offered a five million dollar bounty for his capture.
In January, 2001 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Atef's daughter married Mohammed bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and still a fugitive from his U.S. indictment in the 1998 Embassy bombings, Atef appeared on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush on October 10, 2001.
Atef was killed when a U.S. air-strike struck his home near Kabul during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan on November 16, 2001. His death was confirmed when the ambassador of the Taliban, Abd Al-Salam Dhaif said three days later, "Abu Hafs al-Masri died from injuries he suffered after US warplanes bombed his house near Kabul."
He appeared in a video released in September 2006, that showed the planning of the September 11th attacks.[1]