Nasser al-Bahri
Nasser al-Bahri (1972 – 26 December 2015), also known by his kunya or nom de guerre as Abu Jandal – "father of death" or "the killer", was a member of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2000. According to his memoir, he gave his Bay'ah (oath of allegiance) to Osama bin Laden in 1998. He was in al-Qaeda for six years as one of bin Laden's twelve bodyguards, A citizen of Yemen born in Saudi Arabia, al-Bahri was radicalized in his teens by dissident Saudi Ulemas and participated in clandestine political activities which were funded in part by people trafficking. Determined to become a jihadist, he went first to Bosnia and then, briefly, to Somalia before arriving in Afghanistan in 1996 in the hope of joining al-Qaeda, which he soon did. After four years, al-Bahri became "disillusioned", largely because bin Laden consolidated al-Qaeda's relationship with the Taliban by giving his Bayʿah to its leader, Mullah Omar, but also because he had married and become a father.
Nasser al-Bahri | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1972 |
| Died | December 26, 2015 (aged 42–43) |
| Nationality | Yemeni |
| Children | 4 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Bosnian mujahideen (1993–1996) Islamic Courts Union (1996)
|
| Rank | Bodyguard of Bin Laden |
| Battles/wars | Bosnian War Afghan Civil War (1996–2001) |
After his return to Yemen in 2000, he was taken into custody by the authorities and held for two years without trial. He agreed to abide by the parole conditions of a Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program directed by judge Hamoud al-Hitar. In them he had to accept more education about Islam, as well as discuss his new and old ideas about jihad with the judge and younger students.
During a September 2009 interview with reporter Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star, al-Bahri said that he was no longer a member of al-Qaeda, but that he supported the organization for some of its beliefs.
He claimed to have recruited Salim Ahmed Hamdan to al-Qaeda, where the latter became a driver for bin Laden. The two men married sisters. Captured in Afghanistan in 2001, Hamdan was the first detainee tried under the United States' tribunals; his military defense attorney took his case to the US Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) to challenge their constitutionality. Al-Bahri and Hamdan were the subjects of the documentary, The Oath (2010), by American director Laura Poitras, which explored their time in al-Qaeda and afterward.