Following a brief return to Egypt in 2011 and subsequent release from detention in 2012, he emerged as the leader of the Khorasan Group, an al-Qaeda affiliate operating during the Syrian Civil War alongside the Nusra Front.

[2] In late May 1995, Hassan al-Turabi met with al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to discuss the future of the Vanguards of Conquest; now to operate solely out of Egypt.

[2] al-Zawahiri and Mustafa Hamza organised a meeting in Ferney-Voltaire on the French-Swiss border, attended by a colleague of Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim, an associate of Showky Al-Islambouli and the son of Said Ramadan.

[2] Al-Islambouli came close to assassinating the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on 22 June 1995 on the way from Addis Ababa International Airport to an African summit in the city.

[3][4] Over the winter of 1996–97, Al-Islambouli was commanding a team of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya members, and allocated them to travel to Somalia to bolster the forces of the Islamic Liberation Party.