A member of al-Jihad's "Special Missions Committee" due to his skill at forging passports, Eidarous had fought in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, before accompanying Ayman al-Zawahiri on trips to Sudan and Yemen [REF].
In December 1996, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ahmad Salama Mabruk and Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi were arrested by Russian authorities as they tried to cross into Chechnya.