Omar al-Faruq

For the 7th-century caliph Umar al-Farooq, see Umar.
Omar al-Faruq
Born (1971-05-24)24 May 1971
Arrested Bogor, Indonesia
Indonesian authorities
Died 25 September 2006(2006-09-25) (aged 35)[1]
Basra, Iraq
Citizenship Iraq
Detained at Bagram Theater Internment Facility
Alternate name Faruq al-Iraqi
Status escaped custody, deceased

Omar al-Faruq (Arabic: عمر الفاروق‎; 24 May 1971 – 25 September 2006), also spelled or al-Farouq or al-Farooq, was an Iraqi citizen and a senior al-Qaeda member. He was a liaison between al-Qaeda and Islamic terrorists in the Far East, particularly Jemaah Islamiyah.

Biography

Al-Faruq was born in Iraq but raised in Kuwait. It is believed he joined al-Qaeda in the early 1990s and trained in Afghanistan, where he became one of Osama Bin Laden's key lieutenants. U.S. authorities believed al-Faruq was planning bomb attacks on American embassies when he was captured in Bogor, Indonesia in 2002 by an Indonesian security agent who handed him over to the United States.[2] He[3] Al-Faruq's capture was based on information derived from the capture of Abu Zubaydah.[4] Al-Faruq in turn revealed information about a plot to bomb embassies in Southeast Asia, giving rise to the "yellow alert" of 10 September 2002.[3]

He was sent to Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan. In July 2005, al-Faruq escaped from Bagram prison with three other al-Qaeda suspects. The U.S. authorities did not acknowledge his escape until November, when they were unable to produce him as a witness called by defense attorney Michael Waddington, in the trial of a U.S. sergeant, Alan Driver, accused of abuse at the prison.

On 25 September 2006, Al-Faruq was killed by British troops operating in the Iraqi city of Basra. The operations took place in pre-dawn hours and involved more than 200 soldiers. There were no British casualties.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Omar al-Farouq at GlobalSecurity.org
  2. ↑ "Profile: Omar al-Farouq". BBC. 26 September 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  3. 1 2 Al-Qaeda: Dead or captured, MSNBC, last updated in 2005
  4. ↑ Confessions of an al-Qaeda Terrorist, Time, 15 September 2002
  5. ↑ Top al Qaeda figure killed in Iraq, Reuters, 25 September 2006
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