Egyptian ex-army officer, Saif al-Adel, a founding member of al-Qaeda, is poised to take over after Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in Afghanistan

The heir apparent to the al-Qaeda throne after tonight's confirmed death of Ayman al-Zawahiri is a canny, military-trained operative with experience killing British and American soldiers.

Egyptian ex-army officer Saif al-Adel was a founding member of al-Qaeda, having joined pre-cursor terrorist group Maktab al-Khidamat in the late-1980s.

There he met futu…