US Officials Claim Al-Qaeda’s Expert Bomb-Maker is Dead

Today U.S. officials are confident that Ibrahim al-Asiri is dead. Al-Asiri died in an air strike conducted by the United States in Yemen sometime last year. Reports of his possible death were released on August 20th and were confirmed by U.S. officials a day later.

After the death of one of his brothers in 2000, Ibrahim al-Asiri engaged on the violent path of becoming radicalized by listening and watching propaganda tapes released by terrorists. He left his studies at King Saud University, where he was studying chemistry, to join al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Al-Asiri was caught by Saudi security forces and imprisoned for nine months before being released and forming a terror cell that was aligned with his former terror outfit. He was forced to flee to Yemen in 2006 when Saudi security forces discovered his terror cell. While in Yemen, Ibrahim al-Asiri learned how to build bombs and began launching attacks against the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The first attack that gave al-Asiri notoriety was an assassination attempt against Saudi Arabia’s Interior Minister, Prince Muhammad bin Nayif. Al-Asiri’s brother wore a bomb in his underwear and detonated the device while sitting in a room with the Interior Minister. Nayif was injured in the attack, but ultimately survived the explosion.

Following the design of the aforementioned bomb, al-Asiri equipped the “underwear bomber”, Umar Abdulmatallab, that was to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. The attack failed because the bomber accidently damaged the bomb before the flight.

Al-Asiri also masterminded a 2010 bomb plot that sought to blow up cargo planes over the United States by hiding bombs in printer cartridges. The attack was foiled when U.S. intelligence officials received a tip off from Saudi intelligence forces.

More recently, al-Asiri was creating bombs that could be smuggled inside laptops and phones, a discovery that lead to TSA implement new rules at security check points and imposing outright bans on the devices for some flights.

There is a certain level of healthy skepticism at news of al-Asiri’s death. Similar reports of his death by drone strike circulated in 2011. It was believed at the time that he was killed in the same strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki. Other airstrikes also failed to kill the infamous bomb-maker. This may be the reason it took a year for the news to be released to the public.

The death of Ibrahim al-Asiri is a significant blow to al-Qaeda. While it is believed that al-Asiri has spent years teaching his skills to members of al-Qaeda, removing the head of their bomb making operations hurts al-Qaeda’s future efforts in training recruits to create deadly devices. The United States will continue to look for further evidence of his demise and will continue to fight al-Qaeda’s operations around the globe.