El-Hoorie, Ali Saed Bin Ali (1965–)

aka Ali Saed bin Ali al-Houri

Ali el-Hoorie allegedly played a key role in preparing and carrying out the 1996 tanker truck bombing of the Khobar Towers military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The explosion, attributed to the Saudi Hezbollah group, killed 19 U.S. military personnel and wounded approximately 500. The FBI, citing his involvement in the Khobar attack, has placed el-Hoorie on its list of 22 “most wanted terrorists.”

According to the 2001 U.S. indictment, el-Hoorie, born in El Dibabiya, Saudi Arabia, was a member of Saudi Hezbollah (also called Hezbollah al-Hijaz) and worked as a major recruiter for the group. Saudi Hezbollah is largely made up of young men of Shiite Muslim faith who are loyal to Iran, not the Saudi government. The group is outlawed in Saudi Arabia; thus its operatives often work and recruit in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.

El-Hoorie worked as a liaison for Saudi Hezbollah with the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. Saudi Hezbollah operatives frequently gathered at the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine in Damascus, an important religious site for Shiite Muslims. The site was also a prime recruiting area for Saudi Hezbollah—operatives approached men who were on religious pilgrimages.

About three years before the Khobar attack, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil, the head of Saudi Hezbollah's military operations and a close associate of el-Hoorie, instructed him and two other group members to begin surveillance of Americans in Saudi Arabia. Al-Mughassil eventually selected the Khobar Towers as a bombing target. The service members living in the 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. The towers housed approximately 2,000 U.S. military personnel.

During the first half of 1996, el-Hoorie worked to procure and stockpile explosives (many smuggled from Beirut) for the attack. He buried 50-kilo bags and paint cans filled with explosives at various sites near the town of Qatif, not far from the Khobar Towers. Early in June 1996, el-Hoorie worked with al-Mughassil and others at a farm near Qatif to build the truck bomb. Using stolen ID, a conspirator had purchased a tanker truck from a Saudi car dealership. The men filled the truck with explosives and wired a timing device.

According to the indictment, on the evening of June 25, el-Hoorie rode to the Khobar Towers as passenger in the tanker truck, with al-Mughassil driving. They parked the truck, loaded with more than 5,000 pounds of explosives, near Building 131 of the high-rise Air Force barracks. El-Hoorie and al-Mughassil then escaped in a waiting car. The truck bomb exploded within minutes.

El-Hoorie was one of 14 charged by the United States in the case. Al-Mughassil, Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed al-Nasser, and Ibrahim Salih Mohammed al-Yacoub were also indicted and are also among the FBI's 22 “most wanted terrorists.” Eleven of the men charged in the bombing are in Saudi custody; three remain fugitives. Saudi Arabia has challenged U.S. jurisdiction in the case and has refused to extradite the men it is holding. The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the arrest or indictment of el-Hoorie.