Among the other al Qaeda operatives who have returned to Pakistan from Iran recently is another Egyptian named Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah alias Mohammad al Masri. With Sayf, he was a key player in the attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in August 1998. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is a Kuwaiti who was an active fund-raiser for al Qaeda before 9/11 and one of its most prominent spokesmen before fleeing to Iran in 2001. Abu Hafs al Mauritani, whose real name is Mahfouz Ould al Walid Khalid al Shanqiti, is a Mauritanian citizen with strong religious scholarship credentials.

The Iranian exiles’ return came as al Qaeda in Pakistan was under sustained attack from the American drones. The leadership must now be concerned that the mountain of computer hard drives seized in Abbottabad will unravel their hiding places and lead to more drone operations. So a period of reconstruction is likely. A further wrinkle: recent reports of a new lawsuit suggesting that Tehran may have been complicit in al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks.

One other faction will have a major role in fashioning the new order: al Qaeda’s Pakistani terrorists. After all, they know their country better than any outsider. The man who stands out in this crew is Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri.