He traveled to Afghanistan between 1998 and 1999 and is believed to have spent a year at Al Ghuraba training camp, run by Abu Musab al-Suri. He attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp, where he finished second in his class. He was later made a trainer at Al Farouq training camp and afterwards he was appointed the emir over the region of the Kandahar Airport training camp by Saif al-Adel.[1]