Al-Qaeda's bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri

Ibrahim al-Asiri is one of the well-known terrorists in the history of jihadi operations. He was al-Qaeda's lead bomb-maker in the Arabian Peninsula. He posed a threat to world security agencies and international airports.

Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri was born in Riyadh in April 1982. His father was a military officer. Therefore, al-Asiri had a good military experience and high sense of security. He left college, where he was studying chemistry in King Saud University to join al-Qaeda.

He was known for making bombs as his major was chemistry. He took part in planning for the bombing of oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

He was detained in 2006 due to his links to al-Qaeda, while he attempted to flee to Iraq to join jihadists there. He tried to form a group of takfiris in Saudi Arabia.

However, the security authorities raided the meeting place and killed six of the group. Al-Asiri and his brother fled to Yemen, where they joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in 2007.

On February 2, 2009, the Saudi authorities named al-Asiri on the wanted list, which included 85 individuals. 

Al-Asiri made many parcel bombs and explosives, which were hard to be detected at airports as he used a nonmetal substance and highly sophisticated detonators.

One of al-Asiri's most notable operations was "the underwear bomb", which was carried out by Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk in 2009. Farouk tried to bomb an American plane on Christmas.

He designed a suicide belt for his brother, Abdullah, to assassinate Saudi Arabia's Deputy Interior Minister  Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

Al-Asiri's top operations were parcel bombs he used to send targeted airports worldwide. The parcel bombs would explode at opening in the targeted airports. In April 2012, the CIA found a parcel bomb of underwear used by Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk. The authorities found discovered that al-Asiri was behind these parcels.

More than 250 airports around the world have toughened security measures due to al-Asiri's parcel bombs.

The CIA said Al-Asiri might have been killed in an airstrike along with al-Qaeda top jihadist Anwar al-Awlaki. The two bodies were sent to Saudi Arabia for DNA tests, but the tests were not a match.