Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub
Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub (Arabic: إبراهيم صالح محمد اليعقوب), born October 16, 1966 in Qatif, Saudi Arabia is wanted by the United States government in connection with the June 25, 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on June 21, 2001 on 46 separate criminal counts including murder for his role in the attack, which was led by Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Mughassil.
Months after his 2001 indictment in the 1996 attack, Al-Yacoub, then still a U.S. fugitive, was placed on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush on October 10, 2001.
Al Yacoub is alleged to be a member of the pro-Iran Saudi Hizballah, or Hizballah Al-Hijaz, meaning Party of God, being led by Al-Mughassil. The group is one of a number of related Hezbollah terrorist organizations operating in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait and Bahrain, among other places, and was outlawed in Saudi Arabia.
Khobar Towers plot 1993-1996
The 2001 indictment traces the carefully organized 1996 bomb plot back to on or about 1993 when Al-Yacoub was part of a team instructed by Al Mughassil to begin surveillance of Americans in Saudi Arabia, including at the location of Khobar Towers as early as 1994.
Al-Yacoub remained one of the planners of the attack on Khobar Towers through at least early June 1996. The cell finalized plans on the evening of June 25, 1996, for the attack that night. In the subsequent blast, 19 American servicemen were killed, and 372 were wounded.
Immediately following the terrorist attack, the leaders fled the Khobar area and Saudi Arabia using fake passports.