Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

A Thorn in Their Throats No More-AQAP Master Bomb Maker Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri Reported Killed in a Drone Strike

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The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) chief bomb maker was killed in a drone strike in late 2017 in Marib. If this is true, the world’s aviation sector is a little safer today than it was before, as Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri was always seeking innovative ways to target aviation. Attached is an article I wrote in 2013 on this terrorist entitled, A Thorn in Their Throats-Ibrahim Hassan al-Siri Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) Bomb Maker in Yemen.

                           

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was born from the fruits of a poisonous merger between Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist groups in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.  In 2009, when AQAP announced this merger, Al-Qaeda’s Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri issued an audio statement in which he hoped this merger would be more than a “thorn in the throats of the Crusaders and their agents like the house of Saud and Ali Abdullah Saleh.” Since that time Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, AQAP’s master bomb maker has been a sharp thorn and has put the world on notice with his innovative bomb-making skills.

Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on April 18, 1982. Ibrahim grew up in a traditional middle-class Saudi family with four brothers and three sisters in the shadow of the El Hadji Mosque in the al-Jazirah District of Riyadh.  His father, Hassan Al-Asiri served and retired as an officer in the Saudi military.  Ibrahim attended King Saud University for two years where he studied chemistry. With the death of Ibrahim’s older brother Ali in a car accident, Ibrahim and his brother Abdullah became more devout.

In 2003, Ibrahim was arrested while trying to enter Iraq to join Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He was held in a Saudi prison for nine months and then released to his family’s custody. Nine months isn’t much time for a terrorist who wanted to wage jihad against Americans in Iraq. Rather than punish, the Saudi emphasis was focused on getting jihadists to repent, rehabilitate, and reintegrate into Saudi society. Al-Asiri would later take full advantage of the Saudi’s softer approach to rehabilitation. Armed with this knowledge he would use this Saudi policy to target the official in charge of Counterterrorism and Rehabilitation programs in the Kingdom. After prison, Ibrahim operated under the kunya-Abu Salah, when he became part of an al-Qaeda affiliated cell in Saudi Arabia. Al-Asiri participated in the bombing of oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. With his safe house compromised after a raid, Ibrahim and his younger brother fled south seeking refuge in Yemen. There he met with Nasir al-Wahayshi, who had recently escaped from the Sanaa Political Security Prison. Al-Wahayshi along with 22 other Al Qaeda prisoners to include Hizam Saleh Ali Majali, Qasim al-Raymi, and Muhammad al-Umda tunneled out.  Al-Wahayshi had been Osama bin Laden’s private secretary in Afghanistan for four years.  He escaped from Tora Bora in December 2001 but was arrested en route to Iran.  Ibrahim Al-Asiri has become the primary bomb maker for AQAP and perhaps one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist. While some have described Al-Asiri as an evil genius, he is only one of about a dozen AQAP leaders that combined make AQAP very dangerous. What Al-Asiri has done is to expand the boundaries of bomb-making by combining his technical skills with imagination, sophistication, and deception.

Ibrahim al-Asiri came to light when his brother Abdullah carried his handiwork, a creative PETN bomb that would be concealed in his groin area in an attempt to assassinate a member of the Saudi royal family. While some have suggested that Abdullah concealed the bomb in his rectum that was not the case. Internal cavity devices have not been perfected as of yet but this is a concern for the future. Rather this was one of the first prototypes of his groin/underwear bomb. Since the target was a member of the Saudi royal family the attempted assassination plot needed to use a Saudi suicide bomber. The target for this attack would be Prince Mohammad bin Nayef, who headed up all Counterterrorism efforts and Rehabilitation programs for terrorists in the Kingdom.  For such an important target, Ibrahim al-Asiri would build a different type of bomb for the suicide bomber. He would use his knowledge of Arab customs and cultural taboos against the security designed to protect a member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia. The bomb would have no metal and would be hidden in the groin area of the suicide bomber. He knew there was a high level of success since the security would rely on metal detectors and would not closely check a repentant terrorist surrendering to the Crown Prince.  Ibrahim al-Asiri is dangerous because he adapts his bombs to defeat the security.  While it is important to understand Ibrahim al-Siri’s background, it is more important to understand the evolution of the bombs and the operational methodology he utilizes. Ibrahim al-Asiri not only built a bomb to thwart security but utilized his brother, Abdullah as the suicide bomber. Abdullah would be able to entice the Saudis to allow him to get close enough to the Crown Prince,  dangling hope that he might be able to convince his brother, the number one wanted terrorist in Saudi Arabia to surrender.

On August 27, 2009, Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri, used deception and feigned his surrender as a repentant terrorist to Prince Nayef. A number of al-Qaeda terrorists had personally surrendered to Prince Nayef and had entered the Kingdom’s rehabilitation programs. Prince Nayef had sent an aircraft to Yemen to bring Abdullah al-Siri back to Saudi Arabia. The Prince was hoping that Abdullah’s surrender might lead to his brother’s surrender. Two top terrorists on Saudi Arabia’s Most Wanted List surrendering and entering the Kingdom’s rehabilitation program would silence the program’s critics.  After flying to Jeddah, the suicide bomber passed through metal detectors and was admitted to the Prince’s Palace. Prince Nayef was only slightly injured when the bomb detonated. Even though this attack was a failure it signaled the advent of a different type of bomb and how a terrorist group might use it to attack a protected target.

For years Palestinian terrorists have sent suicide bombers wearing underwear /groin concealed bombs to attack targets. The bulk of underwear and groin bombs carried by suicide bombers have been devices with metal components and shrapnel. But Ibrahim al-Siri has been designing his bombs to avoid detection. His devices had to be able to pass through airport-style metal detectors and visual security to reach the target undetected.

On December 25, 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to destroy Northwest Airlines flight 253 flying from Amsterdam to Detroit with 289 passengers aboard. The bomb Ibrahim al-Siri built for Abdulmutallab used Pentaerythritol (PETN) and Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) and was concealed in his underwear. Abdulmutallab was able to detonate the device and required medical attention when the aircraft land. AQAP’s master bomb maker was able to build a device that was able to defeat airport type security. What one can be sure of is that al-Asiri will seek to make corrections so that this type of device will detonate instead of causing a fire.

Finding the Achilles heel of aviation security is something Ibrahim al-Siri seems to have exploited. Al-Asiri concealed his next two bombs in laser printers. On October 29, 2010, two of his devices were found after Saudi intelligence passed along critical intelligence. AQAP had shipped the laser printer bombs using FedEx and UPS addressed to targets in the United States. The two laser printers containing the bombs had cleared airport cargo screening at several airports. Ibrahim al-Asiri was able to take advantage of lax cargo screening. Even canine dogs and x-rays didn’t find the device in London. In November 2010, AQAP issued their Inspire magazine which outlined the details of this plot titled Operation Hemorrhage. While the articles in Inspire are mainly propaganda in nature they do highlight the research that was done in preparation for this attack. The article further states that the reason FedEx and UPS were chosen was to inflict the “maximum losses to the American economy.”

Ibrahim al-Asiri was able to conceal the bombs circuits into the printer cartridge circuits and to conceal the PETN within the toner. According to the article, this operation took three months to plan and execute and cost only $4200. While AQAP clearly wanted to down these two aircraft, even its failures show an evolution in the targeting and bomb-making skills within AQAP.  In April 2012, AQAP readied another explosive device to attack an aircraft on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death. Thankfully, this plot was thwarted by a Saudi informant. The informant was able to bring the device out and the FBI has been able to exploit al-Asiri’s latest bomb. The unique bomb had no metal and a more improved trigger to ensure that the device would detonate, unlike his last underwear bomb.

Ibrahim al-Asiri continues to be a thorn that poses a great danger each day he is not captured or killed. Al-Asiri has taught a number of junior bomb makers who can continue these types of attacks or even design more sophisticated bombs. By passing on his bomb-making tradecraft, Al-Asiri’s handiwork will continue in the event he is captured or killed. While AQAP has shown a propensity to attack aviation and assassinate targets with suicide bombers, they can expand their attacks into other areas and other types of targets.  AQAP continues to expand their targeting within the region but has always focused on targeting the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

With the recent death of Sheikh Saeed al-Shehri (Abu Sufyan al-Azdi), the deputy commander of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Ayman al-Zawahiri’s statements calling for AQAP to attack America, we can be certain that Ibrahim al-Asiri’s bomb-making services will be used by AQAP to press home major attacks.  Individuals in this region must be on guard for an attack against their interests. Due to the types of attacks AQAP has undertaken in the past, it would not surprise anyone to see another attack on aviation aimed at the United States or even Saudi Arabia.

While travel restrictions might make it harder for terrorists to locate American targets within the country it does not solve the problem. Closing facilities buys time and reduces the footprint at a potential target but it too does not solve the problem. Rather it gives terrorists a short-term propaganda victory. Terrorists can just wait until the restrictions are lifted to conduct their operations.  One of the brightest members of the Foreign Service was Ambassador Edmund Hull. Ambassador Hull served as the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen from 2001-2004.  Ambassador Hull always believed that one needed to seize the initiative and that an Embassy was not a bunker. From a secure Embassy, U.S. Diplomats could engage the people in Yemen and enhance the region’s security and economic development.

While the recent closure of U.S. Embassies and Consulates buys time to check and improve security, it also signals a weakness of the United States. Even when the US moves all non-essential personnel from an Embassy there are always U.S. citizens who must make a decision to depart or stay. Missionaries, NGOs, relief organizations are often caught between departing and reducing services and aid to the people they assist or potentially becoming a target.  As long as AQAP has terrorists and bomb makers such as Ibrahim al-Asiri, vigilance, awareness and a multi-pronged counterterrorism approach are needed until the threat has been removed.

The Terrorism Research Center (TRC) is an independent institute dedicated to the research of terrorism, conducts cutting-edge training and provides analysis and consulting services. Best known for conducting its Mirror Image: Training to Combat Terrorism, a total immersion counterterrorism training program.  The TRC is “A Virginia Company With A Global Purpose.”  For more information go to http://www.mirrorimagetraining.com

 

Insider Threat at Mogadishu Airport: A Suicide Bomber on Daallo Airlines Flight 3159

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As the dawn sun climbed over the skies of Mogadishu on February 2, 2016, one man prepared for his last flight. The man, a teacher at an Islamic School had left his wife and children behind in his hometown of Borama, Somalia.  He had abandoned his family for a journey he hoped would take him to the highest levels of paradise.  Three hours after sunrise the suicide bomber made his way inside Aden Ade International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia.  The airport terminal opened one year earlier still had that new airport feel.  The suicide bomber carried a black bag draped over his right shoulder sans the bomb.  He would get the bomb once he cleared through airport security. He made his way towards the powder blue counters of Turkish Airlines only to learn that his scheduled flight to Djibouti was cancelled.  Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh and 69 other passengers were redirected to Daallo Airlines where they had been rescheduled on Daallo flight 3159.  After getting his boarding pass and seat assignment Borleh made his way through security.

The insider threat to airport security continues to be one of the greatest threats to aviation. The bombing on Daallo flight 3159 is the direct result of an insider threat.  Al-Shabaab terrorists were able to find a way to conceal a bomb inside a laptop and have an insider move the device around airport security.  Concealing the bomb and using an insider are two distinct methods terrorists have used to attack aviation.  In the CCTV video it appears that the security man in the orange visibility vest is escorting and screening ahead of the man who carried the laptop. The terrorist discovered a way to compromise airport security once again using an individual with knowledge of the airport security measures and how to move around them.

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The CCTV picture (upper right) shows two men, one a security person in an orange visibility vest escorting the man with the laptop containing the bomb.  Borleh, the suicide bomber can be seen in the picture (upper left) making his way after passing through security to be handed the laptop. Just as the man in the white shirt hands off the laptop to Borleh the man escorting him in the orange vest appears to be talking on a cell phone. The handoff is done quickly and the men continue on their way with the man in the vest and white hat in a screening position ahead of the second man. While CCTV captured the handoff of the laptop bomb it also shows that CCTV can’t prevent these types of insider threats.

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Once Borleh, the suicide bomber was armed with the laptop bomb he boarded the Airbus A321 and made his way to row 16. Once there Borleh traded his aisle seats with the person sitting in the window seat. Being seated in a window seat meant that the laptop bomb could be placed next to the wall with the aim to destroy the aircraft. Just about 15 minutes into the flight as the aircraft climbed to its cruising altitude Borleh detonated his bomb. The bomb created a hole in the wall of the aircraft sucking the bomber out and filling the aircraft with smoke. Captain Vlatko Vodopivec and his crew were able to descend and make an emergency landing back at the airport. Thankfully the aircraft had only climbed to about 11,000 feet. If the aircraft had reached its cruising altitude it would have been catastrophic. Thirty miles north of Mogadishu in the town of Balad police recovered the body of the bomber, the only fatality.

In the Dabiq magazine, Issue 12 entitled “Just Terror” highlights once again how terrorists have compromised the security at an airport. ISIS in the article stated that it had “discovered a way to compromise the security of Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport.” ISIS was able to smuggle a bomb onboard a Russian Aircraft in September 2015.

On “30 September 2015,” after years of supporting the Nusayrī tāghūt in the war against the Muslims of Shām, Russia decided to participate directly with its own air force in the war. It was a rash decision of arrogance from Russia, as if it held that its wars against the Muslims of al-Qawqāz were not enough offence. And so after having discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport and resolving to bring down a plane belonging to a nation in the American-led Western coalition against the Islamic State, the target was changed to a Russian plane. A bomb was smuggled onto the airplane, leading to the deaths of 219 Russians and 5 other crusaders only a month after Russia’s thoughtless decision.

                                                                                               -Dabiq, Issue 12, page 3-

Terrorist are always seeking to discover ways to compromise security during their casing, surveillance and targeting prior to the execution of an attack. As in the attack on the Russian Metrojet on October 31, 2015 or the most recent attack on Daallo Airlines terrorist seek out or create vulnerabilities in aviation security and exploit them.  Al-Shabaab used a laptop device in a 2013 attack at the Maka Hotel in Mogadishu. This is not the first time we have seen terrorist conceal a bomb in another container. Nor will it be the last attempt terrorists use to down an airplane with a concealed bomb on board.

On December 21, 1988, Libyan terrorists concealed a bomb in a Toshiba radio cassette player to bring down Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270 people. Al Qaeda was able to conceal a bomb in a video camera with two men posing as journalists. On September 9, 2001 the two so-called journalists were able to detonate the device killing Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance.  Richard Reid, an Al-Qaeda terrorist attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device that had been hidden in Reid’s shoes.  Richard Reid has attempted to ignite his shoe bombs on December 22, 2001, while flying on American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami. Reid was thwarted by flight attendants and passengers who were able to subdue him and get the show bomb away from him.

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British police arrested a number of individuals in 2006 who were involved with a plot to bring down a number of transatlantic flights concealing the device in a sports drink bottle.  Using liquid explosives colored with Tang and injected into sports drink bottles the terrorists would be able to conceal the true nature of the explosives.  The terrorists would board numerous transatlantic flights and put the devices together using a disposable camera and light bulb to ignite the explosives.  Concealing a bomb to avoid detection has been one track terrorists have been working on for some time.  And no one does it better than Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Siri.  Al-Siri’s devices have been built to pass through airport style metal detectors and visual security to reach the target. Al-Siri created an underwear bomb and sent Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an aircraft with an underwear bomb.  Abdulmutallab boarded Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day flying from Amsterdam to Detroit armed with the device concealed in his underwear. When he attempted to detonate his underwear bomb the device failed instead catching fire and he was quickly subdued.

In October 2010,  Al-Siri concealed explosive devices in printer cartridges and sent them to the United States. The two explosive devices shipped from Yemen were discovered in England and Dubai after an informant provided detailed information. One month later Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in “Inspire Magazine” outlined the details of the printer cartridge plot which they named “Operation Hemorrhage.”  Whether or not Ibrahim Hassan al-Siri has shared his numerous techniques for concealing bombs with the Somalia terrorist group Al-Shabaab doesn’t really matter.  Al-Shabaab signaled that it has become a regional threat by launching this attack against aviation.  We will continue to see terrorist groups attempt to conceal explosive devices in numerous types of containers in order to defeat security measures.  Ever since Abu Jihad built and put the first altimeter bomb on a Swiss Air flight and killed 47 people in 1970 the world has been put on notice that terrorists are seeking to attack aviation.

Terrorists will also continue to seek “insiders” who can move a bomb or a bomber around security.  The insider threat is the most dangerous threat since it doesn’t matter what type of security one has in place if a “trusted” insider working with terrorists can defeat security measures by using inside knowledge and trust.  Either way we must be more creative and alert in combating these two distinct methods to attack aviation.  For terrorists globally are still trying to attack and destroy aircraft.

From Hadramawt to Home: Rescue of British Citizen Robert Semple By UAE Special Forces

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One of the most challenging operations for Special Forces is the rescue of a hostage. Being able to use the element of surprise and kill or capture the hostage takers before they are able to kill the hostage takes a level of daring, luck and mostly hostage rescue skills. Anything can go wrong during a hostage rescue and when things do go wrong the end result can be the death of the hostage.

On June 7, 2002, Martin Burnham, an American Missionary in the Philippines was killed during a rescue attempt. Gracia Burnham, his wife survived after being shot. The Burhams were held in the dense Philippine jungle by the Abu Sayyaf for 377 days.  Luke Somers, a photojournalist was kidnapped by AQAP in Yemen. The terrorists threated to kill him and issued a deadline. On December 6, 2014, after a daring raid by US Special Forces, a dog barked as the rescue force closed on the target. When the dog barked, one of Somers’ guards shot him before he could be rescued. Somers and South African Pierre Korkie were both shot by the AQAP guards.

Eighteen months ago, Robert Semple, a British citizen was working as an engineer for Intraces in Yemen. Semple was forced by four gunmen out of the vehicle he was traveling in Hadramawt Province. United Arab Emirates Special Forces were able to rescue Semple and move him to Aden, Yemen.  Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted “I’m so pleased for the family of the British hostage in Yemen – who has been released safe and well. Thanks to the UAE for their help.” A great effort to rescue Semple and return him to his family.  UAE military forces have been battling Houthi fighters aligned with former President Saleh against the military forces of current President Hadi.