Tiger Squad

The Tiger Squad or Tiger Team (Arabic: فرقة النمر‎, Fergah al-Nemr) according to the London-based online news outlet Middle East Eye and David Ignatius of The Washington Post, is a Saudi death squad that consists of approximately fifty members from the military and intelligence agencies and has a mandate to carry out covert operations and executions. The Middle East Eye and The Washington Post published their claims of the existence of the Tiger Squad from unnamed Saudi and US sources following the October 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi. It was allegedly created by Mohammad bin Salman to kill Saudi critics inside and outside of Saudi Arabia.

History and composition

According to Middle East Eye's source, the Tiger Squad was formed in 2017 and as of October 2018, consists of 50 secret service and military personnel. The members were described by the source as "unflinchingly loyal" to Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The group members are recruited from different branches of the Saudi forces, directing several areas of expertise. The name "Tiger Squad" was chosen in reference to Major General Ahmad Asiri, part of the Tiger Squad's command structure, who is known to his colleagues as "the Tiger of the South". "Since the coalition's war [on Yemen] the Saudi media also started calling Asiri 'the Beast', and he liked this nickname." According to David Ignatius, United States (US) authorities became aware in September 2018 of a "tiger team" to be created by Asiri for covert operations.

The Middle East Eye source said the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is part of a larger operation of silently murdering persons opposed to the Saudi regime. It involves the most trusted and skilled intelligence officials of the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The Tiger Squad assassinates dissidents using varying methods such as planned car accidents, house fires, or injecting toxic substances into adversaries during regular health checkups. Five members of the squad were part of the 15-member death squad who were sent to murder Khashoggi. According to the sources, Bin Salman has chosen silent murder instead of arrest as the method of repression because only arresting the dissents sparks international pressures for releasing them, whereas silent murder covers it up as ordinary accidents.

Alleged operations

See also: Killing of Jamal Khashoggi

Five members of the Tiger Squad allegedly spearheaded the 15-member death squad responsible for murdering and dismembering Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Prince Mansour bin Muqrin was reportedly assassinated by shooting down his personal aircraft as he was fleeing the country, but made to appear as an accidental crash. "Bostani is a lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Force, and he shot down Mansour's helicopter with a missile from another helicopter," the source said. "But they made it seems like a natural death."

Meshal Saad al-Bostani, a member of the Tiger Squad and a lieutenant in the Saudi Air Force, allegedly took part in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi also allegedly killed Mansour bin Muqrin. Meshal himself was also later killed by poisoned food, but announced as having died of a car accident. "It's a lie. He was locked in a prison and his food was poisoned," the source said. "Bostani holds the secret of the deputy governor of Asir's killing, as well as Khashoggi's."

The Tiger Squad also reportedly killed Suleiman Abdul Rahman al-Thuniyan, a Saudi court judge who was murdered by injection of deadly virus into his body when he had visited a hospital for a regular health checkup. His murder was ordered by Mohammed bin Salman after he had opposed Bin Salman's 2030 Economic Vision. "One of the techniques the tiger squad uses to silence dissidents or opponents of the government is to 'kill them with HIV, or other sorts of deadly viruses'".

Following Jamal Khashoggi's killing and mutilation, several other exiled Saudi activists reported that the Saudi regime attempted to lure them into their embassies. Exiled Saudi activist Omar Abdulaziz said he was approached earlier in 2018 by Saudi officials who urged him to visit their embassy with them to collect a new passport. The Saudi activist stated that the officials from the Saudi regime said "it will only take one hour, just come with us to the embassy." After Omar Abdulaziz refused, Saudi authorities arrested two of his brothers and several of his friends in Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz secretly recorded his conversations with those officials, which were several hours long, and provided them to The Washington Post. It was later reported from an unamed Saudi source with intimate knowledge of his country's intelligence agencies that "I know of another attempt, which was to lure Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz in Canada to the consulate and kill him, but Abdulaziz refused to go and the mission failed. Khashoggi was the first [successful] operation."

Opposition Saudi scholar Abdullah Alaoudh said he was subjected to a similar "plot" when he sent in a passport renewal application to the Saudi embassy in Washington. Alaoudh said, "They offered me a 'temporary pass' that would allow me to return to Saudi Arabia." Alaoudh suspected a trap and just let his passport expire.

Prominent Saudi women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif also separately reported a similar event during her exile in Australia, having said "If it weren't for the kindness of God I would have been [another] victim."

Alleged Members

Five of the approximately 50 members have allegedly been named as:

• Ahmad Asiri, Major General in the Saudi Air Force, the deputy head of the Saudi intelligence agency al-Mukhabarat al-A'amah and the former spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
• Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, born 1971. Diplomat and a Major General. Described as "the spinal cord of the Tiger Squad".
• Saud al-Qahtani, born 1973. Saudi Arabia's royal court adviser.
• Meshal Saad al-Bostani, born 1987. Lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Force. He was killed in a suspicious car accident following the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.
• Mohammed Saad al-Zahrani, born 1988. A member of the Saudi Royal Guard.
• Thaer Ghaleb al-Harbi, born 1979. First Lieutenant and member of the Saudi Royal Guard.

Aim

The Middle East Eye source described the aim of the Tiger Squad as covertly killing Saudi dissidents inside Saudi Arabia and abroad in a way that "goes unnoticed by the media, the international community". Reporter David Ignatius describes the aim as covert operations.

Alleged victims

• Jamal Khashoggi
• Mansour bin Muqrin
• Sheikh Suleiman bin Abdul Rahman al-Thuniyan

See also

• Human rights in Saudi Arabia
  • Israa al-Ghomgham – Saudi human rights activist facing execution by beheading
  • Sheikh Baqir al-Nimr – dissident cleric executed for criticism of the Saudi regime
  • Raif Badawi – imprisoned Saudi dissident, writer and activist
  • Hamza Kashgari – pro-democracy activist and columnist imprisoned for blasphemy
  • Dina Ali Lasloom – imprisoned Saudi asylum seeker
  • Samar Badawi – imprisoned Saudi activist
  • Fahad al-Butairi – abducted in Jordan and taken to be imprisoned in Saudi Arabia
  • Manal al-Sharif – Saudi human rights activist
  • Loujain al-Hathloul – imprisoned Saudi activist
  • Mishaal bint Fahd bin Mohammed Al Saud – Saudi princess executed for alleged adultery

References

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