Riyadh: A top Yemeni government official made stunning revelations that a Pakistani explosive expert was responsible for manufacturing the bomb that was used by an Al Qaida suicide bomber in his failed bid on the life of Saudi Arabia’s Assistant Interior Minister Prince Mohammad bin Nayef, at his palace in Obhur, north Jeddah, on August 27 last year. According to Ahmad Al Maseeri, governor of Yemen’s Abyan province, the Pakistani expert, who made the explosive capsule used by the militant, was himself killed late last year, after being blown up by his own explosive device.
Prince Mohammad bin Nayef who is the security chief in charge of leading the Kingdom’s war on terror, had a miraculous escape with minor injuries when a most wanted Saudi militant Abdullah Hassan Tali Al Asiri, who concealed the explosives in his anus, blew himself up in front of the minister in a Ramadan night gathering. Posing as a well-wisher, the militant virtually exploited the generosity and compassion of the prince toward women and children by convincing him that Wafa Al Shahri, wife of Saeed Ali Al Shahri, who is the deputy chief of Al Qaida in the Arabian peninsula, and her three children, who had left the country illegally and leading a miserable life in Yemen, want to return home. He blew himself up while the minister was making a phone call with a militant, who was purportedly willing to surrender.
Speaking to Okaz Arabic daily, the Yemeni governor said the Pakistani man had trained many members of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula on ways to build and detonate explosive devices. “The Pakistani expert was highly skilled in making explosive devices and had been teaching and training some individuals in Al Qaida on how to make and use explosives,” Al Maseeri said. According to the Yemeni official, the Pakistani had died late last year. “His death was before an air raid carried out by the Yemeni Air Force, which targeted an Al Qaida training camp in the Al Ma’jalah area on December 17, 2009, in which 24 men including two Saudis were killed,” he said adding that the Yemeni forces believe that Al Qaida had hidden the news of his death, which most likely happened when a bomb he was working on exploded.
Al Maseeri also noted that it was uncertain at this stage whether the Pakistani expert was killed in a house that exploded in the south of Sa’ada which resulted in the death of three wanted Saudi militants Mohammad Al Rashed, Fahd Al Jittaili and Sultan Al Qahtani, who were reported dead on September 14, 2009. “However, it was certain that the three of them were implicated in the failed assassination bid on the Saudi minister Prince Mohammad bin Nayef,” he said.
Al Maseeri said that Yemeni security forces had seized documents detailing how to make and use explosive devices from Al Qaida hideouts. “Our forces had found explosives and explosive belts similar to the substances found in the explosive capsule used by Al Asiri in his attempt to kill Prince Muhammad,” he said while pointing out that another Pakistani supporter of Al Qaida, had also been involved in assassination operations using poisonous gases and other lethal substances. He said Al Qaida was relying on these two Pakistani experts, to prepare and train elements from Al Qaida on how to carry out operations using explosives and poisonous substances.
