Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Abou Zeid was one of the senior members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, (AQIM), an Islamist militant organization. He had been promoted by the emir of AQIM, Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud (a.k.a. Abdelmalek Droukdel); some commentators speculated that Wadoud wanted to have an alternative to Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an increasingly powerful commander in AQIM also operating in Mali.