Karim el-Akkad

"The Englishman can die first. He should have died long ago."

- Karim el-Akkad

Field Marshall Karim el-Akkad is a major antagonist in the Power of Five fifth novel, Oblivion.

Biography
The Field Marshall, Karim el-Akkad is the head of Egypt's military force, which he seized control of after killing the previous government. He is utterly evil, ruthless, amoral, fearmongering, warmongering and devoted to Satanism, from which he has abandoned his previous Muslim post.

Field Marshall Karim el-Akkad was once a good Muslim, following The Koran. But soon he decided that when the Old Ones came to power, the old religions were now irrelevant. They had disappeared and every leader now followed Chaos, the King of the Old Ones, because it was him they had to thank for their good fortune.

Field Marshall Karim el-Akkad is feared by all of Egypt, and a band of freedom fighters, led by Tarik, is fighting against him, fanatically opposing all the Marshall's views. Tarik wants to kill Karim el-Akkad. When Scarlett Adams the Gatekeeper is saved and healed by him from a gunshot wound, Tarik brings Scarlett over and asks if she can rain down fire from Heaven on Karim el-Akkad and kill the monster. Scarlett is shocked that Tarik is asking her to kill a human, and refuses.

This shocks Tarik, and he forms a new plan.

Field Marshall Karim el-Akkad is in charge of capturing Scarlett and bringing her to be imprisoned and tortured, and his men fail thanks to the Nexus and Tarik's men. Field Marshall Karim el-Akkad is seen later, talking with his men in their debriefing about how badly the mission went. The men are obviously petrified of their own leader. Karim el-Akkad suggests a firing squad, and when the chief asks who is going to be executed, Karim says the chief will be, for failing the mission. So Karim el-Akkad has the exeuction squad assembled, and then does paperwork for a few hours, then kneels to pray. Instead of facing East, he now faces South, to Antarctica, and Chaos' palace of Oblivion.

When he begins to pray, the lights suddenly go out and the shadows darken. A dark figure begins to form behind him - Chaos is watching him. The King of the Old Ones says he needs Scarlett, and asks for his servant to bring him the girl.

Karim el-Akkad sets up an ambush to get Scarlett, and then he finds that his long-standing rival Tarik is there too. Tarik, in fact, has betrayed Scarlett, planning on having her be a suicide bomber for Karim el-Akkad. Karim gets out of his jeep and tells his men to kill Richard Cole and Scarlett, and that Richard should have been killed before.

But gunfire breaks out, some of the Old Ones and Karim's forces attack, and a new battle starts. But Tarik detonates the bomb, which goes off on Tarik's jeep, because Richard switched the bomb. Then, Karim el-Akkad is also killed in the explosion.