Little is known about al-Asiri's early life; he was born in 1982 into a religious and military family in Riyadh with four brothers and three sisters.[3] Al-Asiri's father is a retired soldier. As of September 2009, he had two surviving brothers.[1]
The Saudi Gazette reported that al-Asiri had been imprisoned and released. His imprisonment was a result of an attempt to enter Iraq to join Islamist insurgents.[3] He reportedly left Saudi Arabia for Yemen together with his brother Abdullah al-Asiri — whom he had recruited to al-Qaeda — to join up with al-Qaeda members.[1]
On August 27, 2009, Abdullah blew himself up at the Jeddah palace of Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of the Interior prince Mohammed bin Nayef, in attempt to assassinate him after posing as a repentant militant.[1][7][8] Abdullah, who had been recruited by Ibrahim as a suicide bomber, used a pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) bomb that his brother had hidden in his rectum. Abdullah died in the attempt, but bin Nayef survived with minor injuries.[9][10]
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Asiri was suspected of being the main explosives expert for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the bomb-maker responsible for building the bombs in the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot.[11] He was a likely suspect due to his history of creating explosive devices using PETN, including his involvement in the failed Christmas Day bomb plot.[12] Evidence suggested the same person constructed both the Yemen parcel bombs and the device worn by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted to ignite the Christmas Day bomb on a plane in 2009. One of the detonators was nearly identical to the one used in the Christmas Day attack.[13]
In May 2012, American security officials leaked their acquisition of a document describing how to prepare and use liquid explosive implants (surgically implanted explosive devices).[2][14][15][16] The implants would contain no metal parts, making them virtually undetectable by x-rays. Al-Asiri was reported to have been responsible for the development of the new weapon.[citation needed]
Sanctions
On 24 March 2011, al-Asiri was added to the U.S. list of terrorists. He was wanted by the government of Saudi Arabia and was the subject of an Interpol Orange Notice.[17][18]
Reports of death
In September 2011, al-Asiri was reported to have possibly been killed by a drone strike together with other AQAP suspects, including American-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.[19] A Yemeni official denied that al-Asiri was killed.[20] On August 13, 2013, it was reported that Al-Asiri may have been seriously wounded by a drone strike which occurred on August 10.[21] A Yemeni official denied that al-Asiri was wounded.[22] Al-Asiri was thought to have possibly been killed in a fire fight on April 20, 2014. Yemeni troops recovered bodies to run DNA tests, but the tests were not a match.[23][24]
Al-Asiri appeared in a 2016 video making references to Saudi Arabia's recent executions of al-Qaeda militants, thus confirming that he remained alive.[25]
On August 20, 2018, United States officials announced they were confident that Al-Asiri had been killed by a drone strike in late 2017.[26]
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Michael Crowley (2019-10-10). "Trump Confirms 2017 Killing of Feared Bomb Maker for Al Qaeda". The New York Times. p. A6. Retrieved 2019-10-11. Mr. Trump's announcement belatedly confirmed news reports from August 2018 that cited United States officials expressing confidence that Mr. Asiri, a leader of the Yemen-based branch known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, had likely been killed by a drone strike in the country the year before.
