Nasser al-Bahri (b. circa 1979) is a citizen of Yemen who is alleged to have been one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards.[1] He is known by the nickname "Abu Jandal" -- "the killer", or "the powerful one".[2]
Al-Bahri is reported to have served as an Osama bin Laden bodyguard in Afghanistan for six years prior to returning to Yemen in 2000.[1] He is alleged to have met 9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and several other 9-11 hijackers in Afghanistan.
Yemeni security authorities took Al-Bahri into custody in December 2000, at US request.[1][2] Al-Bahri was released on a kind of parole, under the direction of a Yemeni judge Hamoud al-Hitar. Al-Hitar's Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program would give captured jihadists willing to debate their jihadist philosophy an opportunity to undergo a kind of house arrest where they would undergo re-education. Al Bahri was released in 2002.
During a September 2009 interview with Michelle Shephard, of the Toronto Star Al Bahri described himself as no longer a member of al Qaeda, but said he was still a supporter of al Qaeda.[2]
Shephard wrote that Al Bahri claimed to have recruited Salim Ahmed Hamdan to Al Qaeda, and that years after they met they married sisters, making them brothers-in-law.[2]
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Al Bahri suffers from diabetes.[2] He was born in Saudi Arabia. He told Shephard he became interested in jihad while watching accounts of the foreigners who traveled to Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. He first traveled to Bosnia, in 1994, a European country, to help fight on behalf of its large and established enclaves of Muslims during its war of secession from Yugoslavia. Subsequently he traveled to Somalia, and then Afghanistan, where he met Osama bin Laden and joined Al Qaeda.
Following his release al Bahri studied Business Administration, a field he now works in.[2] He has four young children. He is writing a memoir.
While he said he opposes attacks that injure or kill civilians, in 2009 he said he supported al Qaeda's attacks on the World Trade Center as a means to make Americans aware of their nation's activities abroad.[2] Then, one year later in April 2010 he stated through an interpreter that he regretted not killing bin Laden when he had a chance, thus leading to the deaths of so many civilians.[3]
On August 26 warned of an escalation in fighting between al-Qaida and Yemeni authorities and predicted the government would need outside intervention to stay in power. al-Bahri told the Associated Press late Wednesday that recent attacks by al-Qaida in southern Yemen was an indication of its increasing strength.[4]