Ayman al Zawahiri said, in his autobiographical Knights under the Prophet’s Banner published in December 2001: ” ‘My connection with Afghanistan began in the summer of 1980 by a twist of fate, when I was temporarily filling in for one of my colleagues at Al Sayyidah Zaynab Clinic [in Cairo]. One night the clinic director asked me if I would like to travel to Pakistan to contribute, through my work as a surgeon, to the medical relief effort among the Afghan refugees. I immediately agreed because I saw this as an opportunity to get to know one of the arenas of jihad that might be a base for jihad in Egypt and the Arab region, the heart of the Islamic world, where the basic battle of Islam was being fought.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, Page 64