Al-Mughassil, Ahmad Ibrahim (1967–)

aka Abu Omran

In June 2001, the U.S. indicted Saudi national Ahmad al-Mughassil for his role in coordinating and carrying out the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers military barracks (which housed approximately 2,000) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The explosion killed 19 American service members and wounded approximately 500. Al-Mughassil is one of 22 men named “most wanted terrorists” by the FBI.

U.S. officials charge that al-Mughassil, born in Qatif-Bab al Shamal, Saudi Arabia, is the leader of the military wing of the Saudi Hezbollah terrorist group. Saudi Hezbollah, also called Hezbollah al-Hijaz, is largely made up of young Shiite Muslim men who profess loyalty to Iran instead of the Saudi government. As Saudi Hezbollah is outlawed in Saudi Arabia, al-Mughassil often met with the head of Saudi Hezbollah, Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed al-Nasser, and other organization leaders in Lebanon, Syria, or Iran.

According to the indictment, al-Mughassil was in charge of planning and directing terror attacks against the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia. He also worked as a recruiter for Saudi Hezbollah, arranging for military training for new members in camps in Lebanon and Iran.

About three years before the Khobar attack, al-Mughassil ordered Saudi Hezbollah members to find possible terrorism targets in Saudi Arabia. His goal, according to U.S. officials, was to expel the U.S. military from Saudi Arabia. The service members living in Khobar Towers were assigned to the King Abdul Aziz Airbase in Saudi Arabia, and patrolled over the no-flight zone in southern Iraq that was declared after the Persian Gulf War.

In early June 1996, according to the U.S. indictment, al-Mughassil and coconspirators worked at a farm in the Qatif area of Saudi Arabia to build the truck bomb used in the Khobar attack. A tanker truck, which had been purchased using stolen identification from a Saudi Arabian car dealership, was filled with explosives and wired with a timer.

On the evening of June 25, al-Mughassil drove the truck loaded with more than 5,000 pounds of explosives and parked it near building No. 131 of the high-rise Air Force barracks. He and a passenger then jumped into a [Page 17]waiting car and drove away. The truck bomb exploded within minutes. The enormous blast, heard 20 miles away, destroyed the north side of the building.

Al-Mughassil was one of 14 charged on June 21, 2001, in the Khobar Towers case. Eleven of the men charged are in Saudi custody, while three remain fugitives. Saudi Arabia has challenged U.S. jurisdiction in the Khobar case and has refused to extradite the men, as the attack happened on Saudi soil and was committed mostly by Saudi citizens.

Three others indicted in the Khobar case, al-Nasser, Ibrahim Salih Mohammed al-Yacoub, and Ali Saed bin Ali el-Hoorie, are also on the FBI's “most wanted” list. The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the arrest or indictment of al-Mughassil.