Son of New York Bomb Plot Sheik Killed in Afghanistan

Egypt's Gamaa Islamiya, or Islamic Group, posted on its website a notice mourning the death of Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, the son of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the "Blind Sheik", who is now serving a life sentence in the United States.

The 73-year-old sheik was the spiritual leader of the Gamaa, as well as of the men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Ahmed's path to militant jihad began at the age of 15 when he went with his elder brothers to Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet Union, which occupied the country for around a decade until the late 1980s.

He was 37 years old when he died, having never returned to Egypt, his family said.

His elder brother, Mohammed, was in Afghanistan with him in the 1980s during the fight against Soviet forces.

"My feeling is of happiness that he died on the path to God as a martyr," Mohammed said, speaking to The Associated Press in Cairo. "He was my friend and my brother in jihad."