JEDDAH: The US State Department has designated wanted Saudi man Ibrahim Asiri a terrorist for his suspected involvement in the 2009 plots to assassinate Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs, and bring down a US-bound airliner. Ibrahim Hassan Tali' Asiri, who was named on the Ministry of Interior's list of 85 wanted in February 2009, is believed to head a terrorist cell in Yemen that recruits new members to the so-called Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula and trains them in the production and use of explosives and how to conceal them. He is thought to have been trained by two Pakistani experts in explosives' production at Al-Qaeda camps, one of them in the Yemeni province of Abyan. Information from sources in Yemen says that Asiri is also suspected of involvement in the failed attempt on the life of Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs at his palace in Jeddah in August 2009. The attack was conducted with explosives hidden inside the body of his younger brother Abdullah Asiri, who arranged the meeting as part of a deception in which he claimed he was handing himself in to the authorities. Abdullah Asiri was the only fatality in the explosion. The US State Department statement said: “Although the assassination attempt failed, the brutality, novelty and sophistication of the plot is illustrative of the threat posed by Asiri.” “Asiri is credited with designing the remotely detonated device, which contained one pound of explosives concealed inside his brother's body,” it said. A Yemeni source said that Ibrahim Asiri recruited his brother to the organization and also encouraged him to take part in the assassination attempt. Asiri left the Kingdom illegally four years ago and was named on the Ministry of Interior's Feb. 2009 list of wanted after he joined up with other wanted persons in a cell targeting official figures and oil installations in the Kingdom. He was reportedly trained in the use of a variety of weapons as well as explosives and poisons, leading him to becoming the cell's leader in explosives production. He also had connections with Ammar Al-Wa'ili and Hamza Al-Qu'aiti, the latter of whom was killed during security operations against the “Tarim Cell” in Yemen's Hadhramawt region. Ibrahim Asiri, who goes by the nom-de-guerre “Abu Sallah” hails from a family in the Al-Jazira District in the east of Riyadh. He and his younger brother Abdullah lived in their parents' house. Their father – Hassan Tali' Asiri – is a retired military officer. Due to the recent protests and deteriorating security situation in Yemen, the Kingdom's authorities have stepped up security along the southern border to prevent any wanted persons attempting to exploit the distractions and cross into the Kingdom or smuggle arms and explosives. A Border Guard spokesman told Okaz/Saudi Gazette Friday that forces in the south have been put on extra high alert in spite of the 24-hour vigilance already in place at the border. “The current circumstances require surveillance operations and patrols to be stepped up,” he said. “Officials are aware of their responsibilities in maintaining the security of the Kingdom's borders at all times, and particularly when there are exceptional circumstances in neighboring countries so that those circumstances don't have consequences for the security of the borders.” He said that the current upheaval in Yemen could lead to attempts by “illegal immigrants, smugglers, terrorists and wanted persons” to enter the Kingdom. Only last Wednesday security authorities in Jizan foiled two attempts by smugglers to cross the border with over 50,000 live bullets, RPG grenades and detonator fuses.
