View source for Al-Ayiri

{{Infobox officeholder
|name        = Yusuf bin Salih bin Fahd al-Ayeri
|image       =
|birth_date  = {{Birth date|1974|04|24|mf=y}}
|birth_place = [[Dammam]], [[Saudi Arabia]]
|death_date  = {{Death date and age|2003|06|02|1974|4|24}}
|death_place = [[Mecca]], [[Saudi Arabia]]
|other_names =
|order = Leader of<br>
|office = Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
|known_for   =
|predecessor =
|successor   = [[Khaled Ali Hajj]]
|occupation  =
|nationality =
}}
'''Yusuf al-Ayeri''' ({{langx|ar|يوسف العييري}}) or '''Yusuf bin Salih bin Fahd al-Ayeri''' (1974 – 2003; known by a number of [[Pseudonym|aliases]], including '' al-Battar''—the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] name of one of the [[Possessions of Muhammad|swords]] of [[Muhammad]]—conventionally rendered "Swift Sword" in English)<ref>Jarret Brachman: Global jihadism Theory and practice. New York 2009, S. 64f. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-zd8AgAAQBAJ googlebooks] {{ISBN|9780415452410}}</ref> was a Saudi Arabian member of [[Al-Qaeda]], and the first-ever leader of [[al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula|al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia]].
==Biography==
Born on 24 April 1974 in [[Dammam]],<ref name="Roel Meijer 2007 p. 429">Roel Meijer, "Yusuf al-Uyairi and the making of a revolutionary salafi praxis" in Die Welt des Islams volume 47, issue 3 (2007), p. 429</ref> [[Saudi Arabia]] to an upper-middle-class family, Ayeri was known for taking part in [[Tafheet|illegal street racing]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/22/saudia-arabia-joyriding-cars-drifting-street-racing-riyadh-rage|title=Riyadh rage: inside Saudi Arabia's joyriding craze|work=The Guardian|date=2014-06-22|access-date=2016-05-16}}</ref> before dropping out of secondary school at age 18 and travelling to Afghanistan, where he received paramilitary training in the [[Al Farouq training camp]], eventually becoming a trainer at the camp. Ayeri briefly served as a bodyguard of [[Al Qaeda]] leader [[Osama bin Laden]], with whom he traveled to Sudan.<ref name=writings/>
The leader of the Somali militant Islamist group [[Al-Shabaab (militant group)|Al-Shabaab]], [[Moktar Ali Zubeyr]], has said that [[Saif al-Adel]] and Yusef al-Ayeri played an important role in the [[Battle of Mogadishu (1993)|1993 Battle of Mogadishu]] by providing training and participating in the battle directly.<ref name="lwj31dec14">{{cite web|url=http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/12/shabaab_leader_recou.php#|title=Shabaab leader recounts al Qaeda's role in Somalia in the 1990s|publisher=Long War Journal|date=2011-12-30|access-date=2014-07-01}}</ref>
After the 1996 [[Khobar Towers bombing]] in Saudi Arabia, Ayeri was arrested by Saudi authorities and tortured. After two years he was released and was tasked by Bin Laden with organizing Al Qaeda's branch within Saudi Arabia.<ref name=writings/>
According to [[Ron Suskind|Ron Suskind's]] ''[[One-percent Doctrine]]'', he was the mastermind of a planned [[cyanide gas]] attack on both the [[New York City Subway]] and the [[Port Authority Trans-Hudson|PATH]] (both of which were canceled shortly before they were to happen).
Before his death, he also wrote a number of [[Strategy|strategic]] documents on Al-Qaeda. According to [[Ron Suskind|Ron Suskind's]] ''[[One-percent Doctrine]]'',
<blockquote>First, it was discovered that this al-Ayeri was behind a Web site, [[Al Neda|al-Nida]], that U.S. investigators had long felt carried some of the most specialized analysis and [[code]]d directives about al Qaeda's motives and plans. He was also the anonymous author of two extraordinary pieces of writing -- short books, really, that had recently moved through [[cyberspace]], about al Qaeda's underlying strategies. ''The Future of Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula After the Fall of Baghdad'', written as the United States prepared its attack, said that an American invasion of [[Iraq]] would be the best possible outcome for al Qaeda, stoking [[extremism]] throughout the [[Persian Gulf]] and [[South Asia]], and achieving precisely the [[Radicalization|radicalizing]] quagmire that [[Osama bin Laden|bin Laden]] had hoped would occur in [[Afghanistan]]. A second book, ''Crusaders' War'', outlined a [[Military tactics|tactical model]] for fighting the American forces in Iraq, including "[[assassination]] and [[poison]]ing the enemy's food and drink," [[Improvised explosive device#By trigger mechanism|remotely triggered explosives]], [[Suicide attack|suicide bombings]], and [[Ambush|lightning strike ambushes]]. It was the playbook.<ref>Ron Suskind, ''The One Percent Doctrine'', 2007, pg 235</ref></blockquote>
Al-Ayeri was killed in 2003 in a [[Shootout|gun-battle]] with Saudi [[Police|security forces]] as part of the crackdown on [[Islamic insurgency in Saudi Arabia]]. He was 29 years old at the time of his death.<ref>Roel Meijer, "Yusuf al-Uyairi and the making of a revolutionary salafi praxis" in Die Welt des Islams volume 47, issue 3 (2007), p. 431</ref>
==Personal life==
He was married to the sister of the wife of Shaykh [[Sulayman al-Ulwan]], himself considered a radical cleric and put in jail by the Saudi authorities for this reason, with whom he had three daughters.<ref name="Roel Meijer 2007 p. 429"/>
==Writings==
The scholar of Islamism Roel Meijer says that "what immediately strikes the reader of the works of Ayiri is their scope, depth, and length" as "between 1998, when he was released from prison, until his death [in 2003], he managed to publish hundreds of pages" on different topics.<ref name=writings>[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/17089/ISIM_18_Re-Reading_al-Qaeda_Writings_of_Yusuf_al-Ayiri.pdf?sequence=1 Re-Reading al-Qaeda Writings of Yusuf al-Ayiri] von Roel Meijer, ISIM Review 18, Herbst 2006</ref>
The famous journalist [[Abdel Bari Atwan]] said of him that he was "al-Qa'ida's first webmaster and an influential ideologue who wrote thirty books."<ref>Abdel Bari Atwan, ''After bin Laden: Al-Qa'ida, The Next Generation'', chapter 2, Saqi (2012)</ref>
== See also ==
*[[Mustafa Setmariam Nasar|Abu Musab al-Suri]]
*[[Abu Omar al-Saif]]
==References==
<references/>
==External links==
*[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/mejjati.htm Globalsecurity.org, ''Karim Mejjati'']
*[http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/notebook/0607.php Tom Hull, ''July 2006 Notebook'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060703084633/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1205309,00.html Time, ''Exclusive Book Excerpt: How an Al-Qaeda Cell Planned a Poison-Gas Attack on the N.Y. Subway'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060808193107/http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/other/salama_060720.htm CNS, ''Special Report: Manual for Producing Chemical Weapon to Be Used in New York Subway Plot Available on Al-Qaeda Websites Since Late 2005'']
*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100947.html Washington Post, ''Odyssey of an Al Qaeda Operative'']
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayeri, Yusef al-}}
[[Category:1973 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:Fugitives]]
[[Category:Named on Saudi Arabia's list of most wanted suspected terrorists]]
[[Category:Salafi jihadists]]
[[Category:Saudi Arabian al-Qaeda members]]