Yusef al-Ayeri

Yusuf bin Salih bin Fahd al-Ayeri
Born	1973
Died	2003
Organization	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Successor	Khaled Ali Hajj

Yusuf al-Ayeri or Yusuf bin Salih bin Fahd al-Ayeri (1973-2003; known by a number of aliases, including al-Batar, Arabic for "Swift Sword") was a Saudi Arabian member of Al-Qaeda, and the first-ever leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.

Born in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Ayeri was known for taking part in illegal street racing, before dropping out of 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.

The leader of the Somali militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab, Moktar Ali Zubeyr, has said that Saif al-Adel and Yusef al-Ayeri played an important role in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu by providing training and participating in the battle directly.

After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, Ayeri was arrested by Saudi authorities and tortured. After 2 years he was released and was tasked by Bin Laden with organizing Al Qaeda’s branch within Saudi Arabia.

According to 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 PATH (both of which were canceled shortly before they were to happen).

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