Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri (Arabic: أبو عبيدة البنشيري; May 1950 – 21 May 1996) was the nom de guerre[1] of Ali Amin al-Rashidi, was a founding member of al-Qaeda and served as the groups first military commander.

[6] It is as if 100 years were added to my life when I came to AfghanistanWhile there he met Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who introduced al-Rashidi to Osama bin Laden, then serving as the chief financer of Maktab al-Khidamat, who was so favorably impressed that he placed him in charge of the training camps for the Afghan Arabs.

Osama bin Laden, Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi, Jamal al-Fadl, and al-Rashidis second in command, Mohammed Atef, were present as well for a meeting in which they discussed al-Qaeda taking jihad outside of Afghanistan.

[1] Prior to 1996, al-Rashidi, Mohammed Atef and Yaseen al-Iraqi aided Enaam Arnaout in purchasing AK-47s and mortar rounds from a Pashtun tribesman named Hajjji Ayoub, and they were subsequently delivered in large trucks to the Jawr and Jihad Wahl training camps.

[13] In spring 1993, al-Rashidi held a meeting with Osama bin Laden during which both agreed that al-Qaeda would target American forces present in Somalia for Operation Gothic Serpent.

Following a recon mission into the country by Mohammed Atef, al-Rashidi ordered a portion of the Sudanese cell of al-Qaeda to go to Somalia and offer weapons, training and assistance to any Somalian forces opposed to the UN presence.

When the news broke that the ferry MV Bukoba had sunk, al-Qaeda sent Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Wadih el-Hage to the scene to verify that al-Banshiri had drowned, and had not been murdered.