The relation between al-Qa'ida topleader Sayf al-Adl and Khalid al-Aruri goes back to 1999 when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had meetings with the al-Qa'ida leadership in Kandahar before opening his training camp near Herat. According to al-Adl, al-Zarqawi "used to travel with Khalid al-Aruri and Sulayman Darwish Abu-al-Ghadiyah."[5]