Images of Ayman al-Zawahiri and al-Qaeda loyalist Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi appeared in videos on accounts linked to the Flydubai co-pilot.
Al-Qaeda images appeared in videos on social media accounts linked to Flydubai suspect Hamam al-Hammami. Photo: X
Images of former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and al-Qaeda loyalist Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi appeared in videos on social media accounts linked to Hamam al-Hammami, the Omani co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, CNN reported, as authorities investigate his background and possible extremist connections.
The material included cockpit footage showing Israeli aircraft and photographs of al-Zawahiri, who led al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, and al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor loyal to the group who carried out a 2009 suicide bombing at a CIA base in Afghanistan. Nine people were killed in that attack, including seven CIA officers and contractors.
Two posts appeared in quick succession on a LinkedIn profile bearing al-Hammami’s name, about nine hours after the September 30 Flydubai incident. But CNN reported that it was unclear who had published the posts or whether they had been scheduled in advance. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN that the LinkedIn profile belonged to al-Hammami.
Al-Qaeda Figures Appeared In Cockpit Video
The first LinkedIn post contained several clips filmed inside the cockpit of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft. CNN said it geolocated one clip to Dubai International Airport, where an aircraft belonging to Israeli airline El Al was visible.
War isn’t over: Al-Qaeda calls for copycat attacks on US, Israeli planes after Flydubai plot
Story by Edited by Priyanshu Priya
• 1h
Israeli airline El Al aircraft sit on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport near the city of Lod on October 2, 2026.
Al Qaeda has reportedly called for copycat attacks targeting Americans and Israeli airliners, invoking the September 11 attacks while praising the alleged hijacker of a Dubai-bound flydubai flight over “crash attempt”.
A LinkedIn profile with al-Hammami’s name said that he worked at Oman Air for several years but left in February 2025.
The suspected terrorist who attempted to crash the Flydubai plane with over a hundred Israelis on board had terrorist immigrants on his social media and had been flagged for extremism concerns when he was flying for Oman Air, which removed him from his position.
The suspected terrorist co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, allegedly attacked a fellow pilot with an axe several times and then sent the plane into a nose dive in what has been referred to as a terrorist attack. The plane dropped several thousand feet within a minute before passengers were able to storm the cockpit, subdue al-Hammami, and take control of the airplane. The incident came a week before the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks.
Al-Qaeda began as a logistical network to support Muslims fighting against the Soviet Union during the Afghan War; members were recruited throughout the Islamic world. When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the organization dispersed but continued to oppose what its leaders considered corrupt Islamic regimes and foreign (i.e., U.S.) presence in Islamic lands. Based in Sudan for a period in the early 1990s, the group eventually reestablished its headquarters in Afghanistan (c. 1996) under the patronage of the Taliban militia.
Peshawar school massacre A soldier surveying the damage to the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, following a deadly attack by Taliban gunmen, December 2014.
Pakistani Taliban, formally Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan or Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP), militant group that formed about 2007 to counter Pakistani government rule in Pashtun-inhabited regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan. Like the unaffiliated Afghan Taliban, with which it shares ethnic, cultural, and ideological ties, the Pakistani Taliban combines a traditional Pashtun social code (Pashtunwali) with the strict religious puritanism of the Deoband school of Islam. The group emerged during the Afghanistan War (2001–14) in response to Pakistan Army operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA; now part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), a region where local tribes had previously enjoyed considerable autonomy. Those operations sought to secure the border region against militants fleeing Afghanistan. The TTP targets Pakistani security personnel and installations, typically in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with acts of terrorism. The group is notorious internationally for its 2012 assassination attempt against Malala Yousafzai, an activist against the group’s prohibition on girls’ education, and the Peshawar school massacre in 2014, in which it stormed an army-run school in Peshawar and killed 150 people.
Formation and leadership history
The TTP was created in late 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant commander sympathetic to the Deoband school of Islam and whose Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan had been a dominant force among the region’s militant networks for several generations. Mehsud had been one of the major insurgents against the army in FATA and had previously concluded a short-lived ceasefire with the government in 2005. The formation of the TTP brought together militant groups from across FATA and parts of the North-West Frontier Province (the name of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until 2010) under Mehsud’s command. Its founding objectives included resistance to NATO forces and the Pakistan Army, enforcement of a Deobandi interpretation of Islamic law, and the cessation of military activity in FATA and the Swat district of the North-West Frontier Province.
Mehsud was killed in 2009, and his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, a fellow tribesman, was killed in 2013. The appointment of a commander outside the Mehsud tribe, Mullah Fazlullah, created discord within the TTP. Many disaffected members, inspired by the rapid expansion of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2014–15, pledged allegiance to ISIS and formed the Islamic State–Khorasan Province (ISKP or ISIS-K), a group dedicated to a transnational jihad and hostile toward the TTP and the Afghan Taliban. In 2018 Fazlullah was killed, and leadership was returned to the Mehsud tribe with the appointment of Noor Wali Mehsud as commander.Areas Of Involvement: IslamterrorismPashtun
Resurgence in the 2020s
Under Noor Wali Mehsud the TTP’s membership stabilized, and it became more closely aligned with the Afghan Taliban in both its structure and objectives, reportedly facilitating the flow of support between the organizations. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in the country, TTP activity in Pakistan saw a sharp resurgence, with the number of attacks reportedly increasing from fewer than 200 in 2021 to more than 600 in 2024. In January 2023, a suicide bombing on a police compound in Peshawar killed more than 80 people during Friday prayers, shaking public confidence in the ability of Pakistan’s security apparatus. The dramatic rise led Pakistan to blame the Afghan Taliban for allowing the TTP to operate in Afghanistan, an accusation the Afghan Taliban denies. In October 2025 the Pakistan Army, emboldened by a warming relationship with the United States and a new military pact with Saudi Arabia, launched an air strike on Kabul in an alleged attempt to target Noor Wali Mehsud. The attack prompted the ruling Afghan Taliban to retaliate against the strike on Afghanistan’s capital, leading to a direct confrontation between the Pakistan Army and the Afghan Taliban.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
